The boom in projects on the real estate market, both in the form of commercial centres and office building projects, took the entire construction market to a value of more than 2.55 billion euros in the first half, 30% higher than in the same period last year.
In domestic currency, the constructions market leapt by 18%, way above initial expectations of some of the players, who estimated that the growth rate would reach only 8-10% this year.
While major construction firms expected infrastructure to be the growth engine of this market this year, and others banked on housing constructions, the waves of investors in the office & commercial sector have upset statistics.
Large projects on the markets of major cities, such as Charles de Gaulle Plaza, America House, Bucharest Business Park, or Polus Center Cluj, as well as the expansion of store chains like Metro, Carrefour, Praktiker, Selgros, Kaufland, and Cora, have set this market moving.
The newly constructed non-residential building sector, including hypermarkets, supermarkets, malls and office developments, saw a 40% surge in RON, higher than the rate for newly constructed residential buildings (houses, villas, flats), which witnessed a growth rate of merely 13%. Civil engineering projects (railway works, motorways, airports), also advanced by only 14%, according to the data released by the National Statistics Institute.
“Non-residential construction works have expanded and this trend will continue over the next two years,” explained Roxana Gavril, marketing manager with the construction firm Alpine SA, carrying out works for the expansion of Praktiker, the DIY unit of German group Metro, or Kaufland, having recently entered the market.
“In the first half of the year, we initiated works for two Kaufland stores in Hunedoara and Cluj,” stated Roxana Gavril, adding that works for a Praktiker store in Craiova had just ended.
For this year, the company forecasts an increase in turnover by as much as 15%. Major foreign construction firms, such as the French company Vinci, are also betting on the opportunities to be seen on the Romanian real estate market. Vinci built the Orhideea shopping centre, including a Carrefour hypermarket, and it is currently applying the same model in Baneasa area. At the same time, Vinci built the BRD tower in Piata Victoriei, the current headquarters of BRD-SocGen.
Moreover, Herve, a French construction firm, worked for Cora Granitul and Carrefour Militari.
New buildings have come to hold the largest share of the overall market, about 58% at the end of the first half. New buildings in the first half of this year posted a 33% increase, to 1.48 billion euros, in line with information from the National Statistics Institute.