Romania's construction market has reached historic highs over the past two years over increased public investment, financed by both national and European funds. At the same time, demand from the residential market has remained limited due to the slow permitting process for new developments in Bucharest. 

Romanian construction group Bog’Art has published its first sustainability report that outlines the company’s results and objectives under the ESG development framework. 

Romanian construction group IBB Holding will issue euro-denominated bonds and list them on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, following a decision of its shareholders. 

The Romanian unit of Strabag has been selected as generator contractor for the construction of a new office building for PPF Real Estate in Bucharest. 

Construction works in Hungary started during H1 2024 fell by 11% compared to the same period of last year, according to the latest EBI Construction Activity Report prepared by Eltinga, Buildecon and iBuild. 

Bogdan Doicescu, CEO, Bog’Art Holding Management, spoke to Property Forum about the company’s expansion of its public works portfolio and the significant growth potential of the construction industry in the next period.

Hungary's construction sector showed a spectacular rebound in April, with output volumes up 11% on the previous month, completely making up for the feeble performance of the previous two months. The production figures in recent months for a sector in fundamentally poor shape are far from tragic, nor are the order books figures, but we are seeing such huge month-to-month fluctuations that it is very difficult to assess what is happening in the construction sector.

In 2023, the share of imported construction materials in the Ukrainian market rose to 23% (compared to 14% in 2021). Experts note that the domestic construction materials market requires systematic support from the government. Iryna Nastych summarised the current situation in the Ukrainian construction materials market in an article prepared by the Ukrainian Real Estate Club for Property Forum.

Bulgaria is recording a slowdown of EU funds’ absorption, which could limit new investments in infrastructure and the energy efficiency of the building stock, according to research by the Eastern European Construction Forecasting Association (EECFA).

The value of construction works launched in three months rose in Q1 2024, Activity-Start hasn’t been so high in the last six quarters. EBI Construction Activity Report Q1 2024 measured the total value of started construction works at HUF 807 billion. Looking at the period between 2018 and 2023, there were very only five quarters when Activity-Start surpassed this number. At constant prices, Q1 2024 was also considered good when looking at the period since June 2022. Nevertheless, when compared to the period between 2018 and H1 2022, it fell into the lower range.