Romania’s construction market soars by 12.4% in Q1, on residential buildings

The volume of construction work in Romania increased by 12.5% in January-March compared to the same period last year, the statistics office INS informed.

Warm weather, some public infrastructure projects being unlocked and the effects of fiscal changes implemented at the start of the year propped up the construction sector in the first quarter. The allowances given to construction firms might have brought firms from the grey area to reported economy and possibly even encouraged firms to declare “constructions” as their primary activity to take advantage of the favorable fiscal regime.

The growth was driven by the residential buildings segment (+27.3%), where most of the unreported activity in constructions is likely to have concentrated in the past. The non-residential buildings segment performed robustly as well (+16.3%), while the public infrastructure projects (engineering works) posted a slim 1.4% advance.

The volume of construction works delivered by Romanian companies has shrunk continuously over the past three years, with a 13.5% decline accumulated in 2018 versus 2015, building, in exchange, a sound (low) base for further robust growth in the years to come.

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