The activity of enterprises in the construction sector in our country has reached record levels for the first 9 months of 2024, according to preliminary data from the statistical office of the European Union – Eurostat. The total construction output for the nine months amounted to 17,029 million leva, which represents a growth of 30.9% compared to the same period in 2023, when it was 13,014 million leva. Excluding 2024, the highest levels that the sector reached in the last 10 years were in 2021, when the volume of construction output for the nine months was 14,821 million leva.
Breaking down by direction, the picture in the sector looks as follows:
The data show that to a large extent the record values of the output in the first 9 months of 2024 are the result of a significant increase in labor costs in the Construction sector. For the indicated period, the average employer’s cost per hour worked by employees amounted to BGN 14.86 compared to BGN 12.68 for the first nine months of 2023. The number of hours worked is also increasing, as in the first 9 months of 2024 they are 154,005,564 compared to 149,555,632 for the same period in 2023. The two indicators lead to an increase in total labor costs of BGN 2,289,001,175 for 2024 compared to BGN 1,896,493,546 for 2023.
The issued permits for the construction of new buildings for the nine months of 2024 are a total of 9,361 with a total built-up area (GFA) of 5,199,731 sq. m. Of these, 5,871 are residential buildings with 29,973 dwellings and 3,509,843 sq. m. GFA. Compared to 2023 The issued permits for the construction of residential buildings decreased by 0.3%, the number of dwellings in them decreased by 1.7%, but their total gross floor area increased by 0.5%, which means that the designed new properties have larger areas compared to those in 2023.
