Romanian developers argue scarce workforce increases construction costs

Romanian construction companies need up to 40% more time to complete their projects because of the lack of workforce, according to Antonela Comsa, general manager of Spanish company Gran Via, which develops residential projects in the western part of Bucharest.

“Before [the labour market tightening], we were building a project in 12-14 months but now a similar project takes us 14-24 months,” she explained, adding that all the construction companies in Romania face this situation, Wall-street.ro reported.

The developers have consequently had to accept narrower profit margins, but are also using more prefabricated concrete elements and consider importing workers from Asia, she explained. Overall, the developers incur higher costs per square metre, she concluded.

“There are heated debates about the construction costs. The average cost per square meter has reached EUR 500 - 550. But this is the cost of construction, not including the cost of utilities, which may vary from one project to another. The impact of the price of the land per square meter of construction, the financing cost and other taxes also add on the top of construction cost," the Gran Via general manager argued.

She claimed that the 10% rise of the sale price of the apartments over the past couple of years hasn’t compensated the higher rise in construction costs.

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