Hungary’s high construction activity start in Q1 2022 was followed by a slowdown in Q2 2022. The EBI Construction Activity Report has found that between this April and June construction works started at a value of around HUF 800 billion. Although the value of projects entering construction decreased in Q2, these are not low numbers at all as Activity Start has been the 5th highest (on a quarterly basis) of recent years. It should be added, though, that recently construction costs have dramatically increased, massively pushing up the Activity Start indicator calculated at current prices, while at constant prices the volume would be lower.

During five months of war in Ukraine, millions of square meters of housing, production facilities, and infrastructure were destroyed. To speed up the recovery, Ukrainian legislation governing urban planning was simplified. Alexandra Fedotova, Partner, Attorney and Head of Ader Haber's real estate and construction practice and the Board Member of the Charity Fund Housing For IDP, reviewed the changes in an article prepared by the Ukrainian Real Estate Club for Property Forum.

Bogdan Doicescu, Development Director & Executive Board Member at Bog’Art, spoke to Property Forum about the cost forecast for the construction market in 2022 and the company’s plans to diversify their activity with their own residential developments in Bucharest.

After declines in Polish non-residential construction in 2020 and 2021, PAB-PCR&F Institute, the Polish member of Euroconstruct, forecasts a growth of over 3% annually in 2022-2024.

Austrian developer Karimpol Group has finished the first stage of the Squarebizz Bory project in Bratislava, which comprises eco-friendly retail storage, service and showroom space within an area of 15,000 sqm. The developer also announced the first tenants who have signed contracts already and the launching of the second phase.

Previous optimism over the prospect of the construction market in the Southeast European region is gone, the Eastern European Construction Forecasting Association (EECFA) reports. The current forecast is foreshadowing almost no growth until 2023 and contraction in 2024. The main reason behind is the worsening climate for construction due to the consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The hotel will be erected on Hungaria Boulevard and is an investment of Europa Investment Property, which belongs to the Premiot investment group, Építészfórum reports.

The number of completed flats in Slovakia has fallen year-on-year in the first quarter of 2022.  Construction around Bratislava has also been on a downward trend for several quarters. However, three Slovak regions report the opposite trend with a dynamic increase in the number of completed apartments. The recovery can be observed in the number of flats under construction, according to data from the Statistical Office of Slovakia, reality.trend.sk reports.

The number of completed flats in the Czech Republic increased in the year 2021 by half a percent. A total of 34,581 flats were completed last year. However, the rising figures are due to extensions, while the number of flats completed in detached and apartment buildings fell. In the future, according to statisticians, it can be assumed that new construction will decline for many reasons, writes the Czech News Agency (ČTK) based on the statistics published today by the Czech Statistical Office (CSO).

The Slovak construction market is the smallest among the member countries of the Euroconstruct area. Due to its size, it is significantly more affected by both favourable and unfavourable influences. Overall, the private sector contributes more to construction investment than the public sector. With one exception, civil engineering, where public investment is higher. In residential construction private investment exceeds public. This can be attributed to a widely neglected public rental housing programme in Slovakia, writes Radovan Kostelník from ÚEOS Komercia in his study for the independent organization Euroconstruct that unites research organisations from 19 EU countries.