Prices for construction and installation work in Ukraine’s non-residential and civil engineering sectors rose sharply in the second quarter of 2026: compared to the first quarter, the cost of work increased by 12% and 12.4%, respectively. At the same time, quarterly growth in residential construction was significantly more moderate—at 0.4%, according to data from the State Statistics Service of Ukraine.
On an annual basis, the trend is even more pronounced. In the second quarter, prices for construction and installation work were generally 21.6% higher than in April–June 2025. Nonresidential and civil engineering construction rose by 22.4%, while residential construction rose by 18.2%.
The increase continued through June. Compared to June of last year, the cost of civil engineering construction had already risen by 24.3%, nonresidential construction by 23.8%, and residential construction by 19.2%. The average rate of increase in the construction sector reached 23.1%.
Thus, the sharpest price increases are currently being observed not in residential development, but in non-residential buildings and engineering infrastructure.
This may be particularly noticeable in the construction of industrial facilities, warehouses, retail and office properties, as well as infrastructure projects, where rising construction costs directly impact investment budgets and the need for additional financing.
In the first half of the year, prices for construction and installation work in Ukraine rose by 15.8% year-over-year. By comparison, the increase for all of 2025 was 5.8%, for 2024—7.9%, and for 2023—15.8%.
The statistics indicate a noticeable acceleration in price pressures in the construction industry specifically in the second quarter of 2026, primarily in segments that are directly relevant to business investment and infrastructure restoration.
The cost of construction and installation work on civil engineering projects in Ukraine in June 2026 rose by 24.3% compared to June of last year—the highest rate among the major construction segments. According to data from the State Statistics Service, nonresidential construction rose in price by 23.8% over the same period, while residential construction rose by 19.2%. On average across the construction industry, the increase was 23.1%.
Civil engineering also led the way in terms of monthly trends. In June, compared to May, prices in this sector rose by another 1.8%, compared to 1.3% in non-residential construction and 0.8% in residential construction.
In the second quarter of 2026, civil engineering and installation work cost 22.4% more than in April–June of the previous year. A similar increase—22.4%—was recorded in non-residential construction, while residential construction prices rose by 18.2%.
The quarterly trends are particularly telling. Compared to the first quarter, prices for engineering work rose by 12.4% in the second quarter, and for non-residential construction by 12%, while the residential sector saw an increase of only 0.4%.
According to Andriy Ozeychuk, owner and director of the engineering and construction company Rauta, the shortage of skilled workers remains one of the key factors driving up construction costs.
“The market is currently short about 30% of construction specialists,” Ozeychuk noted, commenting on the situation in the industry in February 2026.
According to his data, the labor shortage has already led to a noticeable acceleration in wage growth. While wages in the construction sector grew by an average of approximately 15–20% annually between 2022 and 2024, the growth rate reached 25–30% in 2025. Wages rose particularly sharply for concrete workers—by 50%, surveyors—by 44%, and concrete pourers—by 38%.
Thus, the current rise in the cost of construction work is not driven solely by prices for building materials and equipment. The cost of construction work itself and labor is playing an increasingly important role.
Ozeychuk also drew attention to the long-term nature of the labor shortage. According to him, vocational schools are facing both a shortage of students enrolling in construction programs and a high dropout rate as early as the first years of study.
“In the long run, this could lead to an even greater labor shortage and slow down Ukraine’s recovery,” says the owner of Rauta.
According to the company’s estimates, the labor shortage is already forcing the construction industry to seek workers outside Ukraine, particularly in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.
The rising cost of civil engineering is of particular importance to Ukraine due to the massive need to rebuild energy, transportation, utilities, and other critical infrastructure. According to Rauta’s estimates for 2025, the segment of critical infrastructure restoration and protection already accounted for about 20% of the Ukrainian construction market.
Therefore, further increases in the cost of civil engineering work could directly impact the cost estimates for restoration projects. If the cost of construction and installation work rises by 20–25%, projects whose budgets were established much earlier may require additional funding or a revision of technical solutions and implementation timelines.
At the same time, non-residential and infrastructure construction remain among the most active segments of the market. In 2025, the main targets for investment in commercial real estate were warehouse, industrial, and retail buildings, while the most attractive regions for new construction were the Kyiv, Lviv, and Ivano-Frankivsk regions, Ozeychuk noted.
In the first half of 2026, civil engineering construction costs rose by 16.1% year-over-year, non-residential construction by 16.5%, and residential construction by 13.7%.
“Rauta” operates in the fields of design, construction, and installation of buildings and is a member of the European Construction Industry Association. According to data from the Unified State Register, Andriy Ozeychuk owns 100% of the company’s authorized capital.
CONSTRUCTION, INFRASTRUCTURE, OZEYCHUK, PRICE, RAUTA, RESTORATION, STAFF
According to Serbian Economist, Belgrade continues to account for a significant portion of Serbia’s construction and investment activity, while the development of the real estate market in other regions of the country remains noticeably less uniform.
In the second quarter of 2026, the Belgrade region was the only region in Serbia where construction activity grew in real terms, with growth reaching 51% compared to the same period last year.
This is evidenced by data from the Republic Statistical Office of Serbia (RZS), published on August 10.
In all other regions of the country, construction activity declined in the second quarter. In Vojvodina, the value of completed construction work at constant prices fell by 2%; in Šumadija and Western Serbia, by 27.5%; and in Southern and Eastern Serbia, by 32.3%.
Thus, the latest quarterly statistics indicate a sharp widening of the gap between the capital and the rest of Serbia in terms of the volume of construction work.
Across Serbia as a whole, the value of construction work in the second quarter rose by 20.6% in current prices compared to April–June 2025.
Building construction grew particularly rapidly. In constant prices, the volume of work in this segment increased by 32.4% year-over-year, while for other construction projects, including infrastructure, the figure decreased by 7.1%.
Vera Yegorova-Tolsta, founder of the Belgrade real estate agency VIDOVSTAN, believes that the concentration of capital in the capital is a sustained trend and is linked not only to local demand but also to Belgrade’s investment appeal.
“Belgrade remains a distinct market within Serbia. It is home to jobs, foreign businesses, major infrastructure projects, and a significant portion of investment demand. Therefore, new projects in the capital’s prestigious neighborhoods typically find buyers faster than similar properties in smaller cities. At the same time, within Belgrade itself, the differences between neighborhoods and the quality of projects are becoming increasingly noticeable,” says Yegorova-Tolstaya.
In practice, this means that nationwide Serbian statistics do not always fully reflect the situation for an apartment buyer in the capital. The growth in supply across the country may be accompanied by persistently high prices in Belgrade’s most popular neighborhoods.
Yegorova-Tolstaya has also previously noted that the Serbian market remains stable, but demand is becoming more selective, and the quality and location of properties are becoming increasingly important.
It will be possible to definitively assess the extent to which construction activity in the second quarter affected apartment prices in Belgrade after the publication of the latest quarterly report from the RGZ Real Estate Price Register.
https://t.me/relocationrs/3427
Euro Land UA LLC (Euro Land UA) plans to raise $8 million for the construction of a liquid microfertilizer plant in the Ternopil region, according to the Ukraine Investment Guide 2026, presented at the Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC2026) in Gdańsk, Poland, which took place in late June.
The total project budget is $13 million, of which the company is prepared to finance $5 million using its own funds. A mixed financing structure (equity and debt) is envisaged.
The project involves the construction of a modern plant for the production of liquid micronutrient fertilizers based on EDTA technology. Its annual production capacity will be 10,000 metric tons of liquid micronutrient fertilizers, 5,000 metric tons of specialty fertilizers, and 3,000 metric tons of chelated micronutrients. The products will be supplied to Ukrainian agricultural producers as well as to export markets, primarily to EU countries.
According to the catalog, production is scheduled to begin 1.5 years after the project’s launch. The payback period is four years.
The project is currently in the advanced preparation stage: the product concept, formulation, and market positioning have been developed; negotiations are underway with technology partners; and the site selection and design of the future plant are in progress. Potential partners include the British company OMEX, as well as European suppliers of equipment and raw materials.
Euro Land Yue LLC was registered in 2017 in the Ternopil region. It specializes in supplying plant protection products, micronutrients, and other agrochemical products. Bogdan Kaminsky is the owner, ultimate beneficiary, and director of the company.
In 2025, Euro Land Uei LLC saw its revenue decline by 4.0% to 89.83 million UAH and its net profit fall by 33.1% to 10.88 million UAH.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is considering providing a loan of up to 34 million euros to the municipal utility “Rivneoblvodokanal” for the construction of new wastewater treatment facilities with a capacity of 60,000 cubic meters per day, the reconstruction of three sewage pumping stations, and the implementation of energy-efficient technologies.
According to the bank’s materials, the project is scheduled to be approved on July 22, 2026, and its total cost is estimated at 53.1 million euros.
The loan is to be disbursed in two tranches. It will be supplemented by an investment grant of up to 10 million euros from the Eastern European Partnership for Energy Efficiency and the Environment (E5P) Fund.
Repayment of the loan is fully guaranteed by the Rivne region, and 25% of the loan amount will be covered by a European Union (EU) guarantee under the Municipal, Infrastructure, and Industrial Resilience Program (MIIR) as part of the Investment Program for Ukraine (UIF).
The funds will also be used to install energy-efficient equipment and SCADA automated control systems at Rivneoblvokanal facilities.
The project aims to improve wastewater collection and treatment for approximately 240,000 residents of Rivne and surrounding areas, including internally displaced persons.
According to EBRD estimates, the new treatment facilities will treat 22 million cubic meters of wastewater per year in accordance with EU standards. The project is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% and net energy consumption by 45%.
The project is part of the EBRD’s “Resilience and Livelihoods” (RLF) program, which aims to restore and enhance the resilience of Ukraine’s critical infrastructure. It also includes training company staff to operate the new equipment and establishing a dedicated project implementation team.
As previously reported, in February 2026, the EBRD approved a 12 million euro loan for Rivne to finance the energy-efficient modernization of at least 24 social infrastructure facilities. The project, with a total cost of 19 million euros, also includes a 6 million euro grant from the E5P program and 1 million euros in co-financing from the city.
According to Experts.news, Ukraine’s construction industry has shown mixed trends based on preliminary results for the first half of 2026: following growth in 2023–2025, the sector has faced a slowdown in the volume of work, rising construction costs, a labor shortage, and a shift in demand toward housing and infrastructure reconstruction.
The State Statistics Service has not yet released final data for January–June, so a current assessment can be made based on statistics for the first four months, data on housing completions in the first quarter, the “eOselya” and “eVidnovlennia” programs, as well as construction companies’ expectations for the second quarter.
According to the State Statistics Service, the volume of construction work completed in Ukraine in January–April 2026 decreased by 2% compared to the same period in 2025 and amounted to 59.3 billion UAH. At the same time, in April compared to April 2025, construction had already shown a 2.8% increase; specifically, residential construction rose by 5.8%, civil engineering structures by 9.7%, while non-residential construction declined by 7.4%. New construction accounted for 47.8% of the total in April, repairs for 29%, and reconstruction and other work for 23.2%.
By comparison, in 2025, the volume of construction work completed in Ukraine rose by 11.3% to 258.2 billion UAH, but the growth rate was already slowing down at that time, following 17.8% growth in 2024 and 31.8% in 2023. In 2025, residential construction grew by 13.5%, nonresidential construction by 25.4%, and civil engineering by only 3.1%.
“In the first half of 2026, the construction sector effectively transitioned from a phase of rapid post-shock recovery to a phase of selective growth. Housing, renovations, engineering infrastructure, and reconstruction-related projects remain the most resilient. At the same time, commercial non-residential construction remains weaker due to war risks, more expensive financing, and uncertainty for investors,” noted Maksym Urakin, founder of the Experts Club analytical center and candidate of economic sciences.
The residential segment appears more stable than the overall industry trend. In the first quarter of 2026, housing completions in Ukraine decreased by only 0.1% year-over-year, to 2.289 million square meters. During this period, 29,600 apartments were completed, which is 4.3% more than in the first quarter of 2025. The largest volumes of housing completions were recorded in the Lviv, Odesa, Ivano-Frankivsk, Zakarpattia, and Ternopil regions, while in Kyiv, 289,000 square meters of housing—or 4,900 apartments—were completed.
Government programs remain one of the key sources of demand for housing. According to the Ministry of Economy, as of June 22, 2026, 4,104 Ukrainian families had taken advantage of the “eOselya” program since the beginning of the year, receiving preferential mortgage loans totaling nearly 7.7 billion UAH. In just one week in June, 157 loans totaling 313 million UAH were issued, with the majority of new loans going toward first-time home purchases.
The “eVidnovlennia” program plays an even more important role for the construction market. As of June 2026, 206,447 Ukrainian families had received assistance for repairing or purchasing new housing, totaling 103.9 billion UAH. More than 138,000 families received payments to repair damaged homes, nearly 65,000 families received housing certificates for destroyed property, and a separate program for rebuilding on private land is already being funded through tranches.
At the same time, the industry is facing significant price pressure. According to the summary table of price indices for construction and installation work, in April 2026, the construction price index stood at 103.1% compared to March, following 109.4% in March, 101.8% in February, and 101.1% in January. The cumulative figure for the first four months of 2026 was 116.1%, indicating a significant increase in the cost of labor and materials.
Business expectations among construction companies remain cautious. According to a State Statistics Service survey for the second quarter of 2026, the business confidence indicator in construction improved by 1.9 percentage points compared to the first quarter but remained deeply negative at minus 25.7%. The current order volume was estimated at minus 41.5%, and expectations regarding the number of employees stood at minus 9.9%. Companies cited labor shortages, financial constraints, and other factors as the main limiting factors, while their order backlog was estimated to cover an average of six months of work.
At the macro level, the country’s recovery remains the industry’s main long-term driver. According to estimates by the World Bank, the Ukrainian government, the European Commission, and the UN, Ukraine’s needs for recovery and reconstruction over the next ten years are already estimated at nearly $588 billion. Direct losses reached $195 billion, with the housing, transportation, and energy sectors hardest hit. Damages to the housing sector alone are estimated at approximately $61 billion, and about 14% of the housing stock has been damaged or destroyed.
According to Experts Club’s assessment, in the second half of 2026, Ukraine’s construction industry will remain dependent on three key factors: the security situation, access to financing, and the stability of government recovery programs. Residential projects in hinterland regions, the reconstruction of damaged housing, engineering infrastructure, the energy resilience of communities, social housing, and critical infrastructure facilities will have the greatest potential.
“The Ukrainian construction sector cannot be assessed solely based on the current index of completed work. It is no longer just an economic sector, but one of the key tools for survival, the return of people, the recovery of communities, and the country’s future investment attractiveness. But the transition from repairs to large-scale modernization requires long-term financing, insurance against war risks, transparent project pipelines, and skilled personnel,” emphasized Maksym Urakin.
Thus, the first half of 2026 for Ukraine’s construction industry can be preliminarily assessed as a period of stabilization following the rapid growth of previous years. The market is not showing a uniform upturn, but it has significant structural demand related to housing, reconstruction, infrastructure, and future post-war reconstruction. For businesses, this means a shift toward more selective competition—companies with access to financing, qualified personnel, a transparent cost estimation framework, and the ability to work with government and international reconstruction programs will come out on top.
CONSTRUCTION, EXPERTS CLUB, HOUSING, INFRASTRUCTURE, RECONSTRUCTION, URAKIN
