2024 is foreseen to experience a decline in SEE construction markets but a comeback is the projected current scenario for 2025. Romania is expected to contribute most negatively to the shrinkage of the SEE region in 2024. The rest of the countries is forecast to perform better. Bulgaria, Croatia and Serbia could end up at higher level in 2025 than what was experienced in 2023. The EECFA (Eastern European Construction Forecasting Association) released its 2023 winter construction forecast.

It is anticipated that the market will experience the transition from being perceived as a problem to an opportunity for many investors and funds in 2024. CBRE summarised this year's developments in the Czech commercial real estate market and provided an outlook for 2024. 

At the peak of the construction season, there were double-digit year-on-year drops in the issuance of building permits and approvals, the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic reports. The number of started dwellings was significantly behind even the pre-pandemic period, but the completion was higher. The pace of completion and the start of construction slowed year-on-year in up to 6 regions.

Ostrava Airport has opened an air cargo terminal called Cargo 2 at the airport in Mošnov in the Novojičín region (25 minutes south of Ostrava). It cost CZK 139 million (€5.6 million) to build and was constructed by the Ostrava company HSF System. The terminal will increase the airport's capacity and improve the quality of cargo handling, the Czech News Agency (ČTK) reports.

According to the State Employment Service, as of September 1, 2023, the number of vacancies in the construction industry exceeded the number of registered unemployed. Representatives of the largest developers in the capital speak of a shortage of workers. Olga Solovei summarised what is happening in the labour market in the construction sector of Ukraine in an article prepared by the Ukrainian Real Estate Club for Property Forum.

Kaufland intends to significantly reduce CO2 emissions in the future in the construction of new stores. Therefore, the retailer is currently testing various alternatives to materials such as concrete and steel at pilot locations. In Bratislava, the company is opening the largest timber store in Slovakia. In Tuttlingen, Baden-Württemberg, a store is being built using recycled building materials including items such as walls, the facade, and the parking lot.

Few multi-unit residential construction works started in Hungary, a little above HUF 50 billion, mainly a few larger projects. And although Q2 brought a rise in Activity-Start, the value of the indicator was far below the quarterly numbers of 2017-2019 and 2021-2022, according to the latest EBI Construction Activity Report.

Jacek Korwin-Małaszyński and Michał Korwin-Małaszyński, Members of the Board of APP Projekt, one of the leaders in construction engineering in Poland, have talked to Property Forum about the current situation on the property market, prices of the materials and the impact of the '2% Safe Credit' on the industry.

Leoš Anderle, CEO of Sekyra Group spoke to Property Forum about the residential projects of the Group not only in Prague but also in other cities, including abroad. He also shared what kind of buildings are the most complicated to build.

Jiří Oslizlo, Chairman of the Board of Agrop Nova talked to Property Forum about the unique properties of wood and wooden constructions and how he would like to use his life experience from abroad to help reconfigure Czech thinking and ways of building.