The Bulgarian construction sector shrank by 21.9 per cent in November 2009, compared to November 2008, the Bulgarian National Statistics Institute (NSI) reported on January 11 2010.

According to Dnevnik daily, the bulk of the decrease in the industry is attributed to a decline in real estate construction. The aforementioned suffered a 28.3 per cent drop, whereas engineering and infrastructure construction fell 8.5 per cent.

Compared to October 2009, the decline in November was 10.7 per cent, of which 12.5 per cent was attributed to real estate construction, and 7.5 per cent to engineering and infrastructure, the NSI said.

For the period January–November 2009, total construction output in the country declined by 13.8 per cent, as opposed to January– November 2008. Of that, 18.6 per cent of the decline was incurred by real estate construction, and 2.8 per cent from infrastructural construction.

On December 16 2009, it was revealed that real estate construction companies were redirecting resources towards road and infrastructure construction.
 
Some of these companies were said to be conducting negotiations to buy out established road construction firms. The reason for the shift in interest was a one billion euro planned investment in the sector under regional development programmes earmarked for modernising Bulgaria’s infrastructure.
 
"Real estate construction and tourism are in stagnation; for seven or eight months now we have been expanding our resources towards the road construction sector," Nikolai Galchev, head of Galchev Engineering Group, was quoted by Dnevnik as saying.

But the decision to shift the direction of operations was greeted with some uncertainty from established firms with longstanding traditions in road, bridge and infrastructure construction in Bulgaria.

"Colleagues in the residential construction sector are aggressively pushing to get a slice of the market in motorway construction. We respect their professional expertise, but the reality is that they have no experience in road construction," said Roumen Yovchev, executive director of Moststroi.

Source: propertywisebulgaria.