Builders bounce strongly off bottom

TALLINN - The first quarter of 2011, as compared to the same quarter of the previous year, recorded total production by Estonian construction companies in Estonia and foreign countries growing 34 percent, of which 29 percent was on the domestic market, show data at Statistics Estonia, reports news agency LETA. In the first quarter of 2011, the production value of construction companies amounted to 264 million euros, of which the production value of building construction was 176 million euros and the production of civil engineering projects totaled 88 million euros.

Compared to the same quarter of 2010, the volume of building construction increased about 40 percent and the volume of civil engineering by more than a fourth. The rapid growth in construction volumes was mainly influenced by the low reference base in 2010, when the decline on the construction market was the biggest.
Helped along by the rapid increase in construction production in the 1st quarter of 2011, the construction volumes have now reached the level of the first quarter of 2004. During the last years the construction market has been supported mainly by the construction of infrastructure objects, but by now the building construction is also on an upswing due to favorable conditions created for the reconstruction of buildings.

The construction volume of Estonian construction firms in foreign countries increased 71 percent compared to the first quarter of the previous year. The increase was mainly caused by building construction. The share of the construction volumes in foreign countries accounted for 15 percent of the total volume of construction volume in the first quarter.
Compared to the fourth quarter of the previous year, the seasonally and working-day adjusted construction volume increased by 14 percent.

According to the data of the Register of Construction Works, in the first quarter of 2011, the number of dwelling completions was 366, i.e. about one half less than in the same period of 2010. More than a half of completed dwellings were situated in one-family, two-family or terraced houses. The majority of completed dwellings were situated in the neighboring rural municipalities of Tallinn.

In spite of the consumer’s price sensitivity, the demand for new dwellings with good location and quality has grown continuously. In the first quarter of 2011, building permits were granted for the construction of 990 dwellings, which exceeded the number of dwellings in the previous quarter as well as in the 1st quarter of 2010. The most popular type of building was apartment buildings.

In the first quarter of 2011, the number of completed non-residential buildings was 143, with a useful floor area of 72,000 square meters. The useful floor area of transport, agriculture and industrial buildings increased the most. Compared to the same period of 2010, the useful floor area and the cubic capacity of completed non-residential buildings decreased.