Building industry

Situation of the building industry in Hungary

• Currently, the building industry is considered a crisis sector in Hungary
• Due to lack of demand, building industry suppliers and raw material producers are also struggling with great difficulties (example of just a few areas: wood, rubber, plastics, chemicals, ceramics etc.)
• The decline in volume of the sectors was between 10-50% compared to the previous year
• The production volume of the building industry was 10.1% lower in 2010 compared to the figure for the previous year
• The decline in volume of housing construction was particularly significant
• Building of other constructions declined by 15.2% (this was primarily caused by an approximately one-third cutback in the production of companies engaged in road building)
• In 2010 the volume of new contracts signed with building industry enterprises was 13.0% down on the level for 2009
• There was a year-on-year decline of 26.6% in the amount of contracts for the construction of buildings
• In 2010 a total of 20,823 new homes were built, 35% fewer than one year earlier
• The number of residential building licences issued was 17,353, which represents a 39% downturn on the data for 2009
• The number of building licences makes it likely that there will be a further reduction in the number of new homes being built in 2011
• The number of homes taken over during the course of the year dropped to the greatest degree in Budapest, by 40%
• There was an average downturn in housing construction volume in communities and cities of county rank (35%), and a smaller proportional decline in other towns (28%)
• The building market continues to be characterized by a high number of enterprises: in April 2010 there were 98,000 enterprises active in the country, of which nearly a half were sole proprietorships
• 117,800 people worked in the sector in 2009, although 12% of the recently unemployed came from the building industry
• As a consequence of pricing competition forcing businesses to sell under cost price, a large number of big multinationals ceased trading and further bankruptcies can be expected
• As a consequence of all these factors the number of debt chains has not been reduced and the financial and liquidity situation of the sector has declined still further

Building industry associations in Hungary

• National Federation of Hungarian Contractors (ÉVOSZ)
• Hungarian Building Materials Industry Association (MÉASZ)
• Doors and Windows Association
• Hungarian Concrete Association
• Hungarian Concrete Element Manufacturers Association
• Hungarian Cement Industry Association
• EPS Insulation Manufacturers Association in Hungary
• Hungarian Ceramics Association
• Hungarian Light Industry Association
• Hungarian Brick Association
• Hungarian Glass Industry Association
• Hungarian Passive House Association
• Association of Hungarian Architects
• Hungarian Engineers Association
• Hungarian Housing Builders National Association
• Green Roof Builders National Association
• Hungarian Consultant Engineers and Architects Association
• Hungarian Steel Structures Association
• Aluminium Windows and Facades Association

State bodies

Ministry of Interior

Deputy State Secretariat for Planning and Building

• Planning
• Building
• Building monitoring system
• Urban development
• National Chief Architect’s Office

Ministry of Economy, State Secretariat for Domestic Economy

• Sectoral management of the building industry and building materials industry
• Implementation of the housing creation programme of the New Széchenyi Plan
• Drafting of legal regulations on the requisitioning of real estate, state funding for housing, professional and examination requirements for real estate vocational training courses
• Analysis of data on the housing stock and the mortgaging activities of banks

http://www.kormany.hu/

Hungarian building industry exports

• Architectural planning offices: Hungarian planning offices staffed by qualified and professional Hungarian architects are currently also struggling with a severe lack of projects; the intellectual fruits of these offices are exportable to virtually every country in the world
• Building materials production: delivery costs are a restrictive element for exports by building materials industry companies, therefore their potential export markets tend to be in the countries within the Carpathian Basin region
• Building industry contracting companies: many contracting companies are small-size enterprises, which are currently oriented towards Austria and Germany, while the larger contracting enterprises also have a presence in more distant regions, for instance on the Middle Eastern market and countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States
• Innovation products, know-how: given their uniqueness, these products and technologies are marketable in many countries around the globe, particularly if the given country enforces patent protection. One such example is “glass concrete” that was developed by a Hungarian engineer

Contact:

Nándor Zemniczky
E-mail: nandor.zemniczky@hita.hu