Value of started construction projects in Hungary fell almost 17% down year-on-year in the first nine months of 2024, accounting for around HUF 1800 billion, according to EBI Construction Activity Report Hungary.
In the first three quarters, the value of started building construction works was slightly less than HUF 1360 billion, 15%-22% lower than in the same period of 2021-2023, according to the report prepared by Eltinga, Buildecon and iBuild.
Multi-unit housing constructions posted a slight decrease in Activity-Start in Q3, but non-residential projects registered a larger drop with only HUF 200bln worth of projects entering construction phase between July and September.
In the first nine months, the Activity-Start of non-residential constructions was around HUF 1000 billion, 21%-27% lower at current price than in the same period of 2021-2023.
The largest construction projects included Lidl's logistics center in Kiskunfélegyháza, HelloParks Páty PT5 logistics hall, Pick's production plant in Szeged, Intretech's plant in Kapuvár, Rheinmetall's hydrogen and e-mobility parts production plant in Szeged and IGPark's logistics hall in Debrecen.
The value of completed multi-unit housing buildings reached around HUF 265 billion, a slight increase over the same period last year. Over 60% of new residential development kicked off in Budapest over the past year.
In the civil engineering field, compared to the same period in 2021 and 2023, Activity-Start between January and September this year was 22%-24% lower, while it was only a little more than a third of the exceptionally high 2022. Road and railway construction accounted for roughly 45% in Activity-Start, their value slightly exceeding HUF 200 billion.
In the past four quarters, 39% of all started construction works were in Budapest. The second largest Activity-Start was characterized by the Northern Great Plain (14%), followed by the Southern Great Plain and Pest County (12%).
Northern Hungary and Southern Transdanubia recorded the lowest value of started construction works with their respective share of around 5%.
Activity-Start in Central Transdanubia was roughly HUF 40 billion in all three quarters this year. Thus, in the first 9 months, construction projects started at a total of HUF 123 billion, which was a major drop compared to the same period of previous years.
Hardly any civil engineering projects started in Central Transdanubia and the value of started works only reached a bit more than HUF 20 billion. Among major civil engineering projects this year only Phase 1 of the dam between Mária-Valéria Bridge and Prímás island ramp can be mentioned.
