Projects will only be ready to tender when the market is more desirable if design has taken place now.

Without a doubt, Central Europe's proximity to the war in Ukraine has affected the local economies of the five Gleeds countries in this quarterly report.

Compared to Gleeds Western European countries, inflation levels remain higher throughout Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Czechia and Romania. In general, gross domestic product growth is also lower.

While the monthly Construction Confidence Indicator provided by Eurostat remains negative across our five countries, small improvements have been seen in Czechia, Poland and Slovakia where fewer survey respondents are reporting an expectation of worsening market conditions.

And while the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) forecasts GDP and inflation improvements in 2024 (only months away), developers may decide to avoid the uncertainty and look to invest in other markets — but despite the current challenges it could be considered a missed opportunity to use this “downtime” to set out a solid procurement strategy that explores sectors with growth potential.

Perhaps now is the ideal time to invest in a future-proofed design that explores sustainable options for optimising an asset’s long-term operating costs. How many projects have delivered less-than-perfect results because there wasn’t enough time spent weighing up procurement strategies, or on value engineering workshops that focused on adding value instead of only reducing costs?

Understandably, embarking on new projects and making the most of the challenging situation is a luxury few can enjoy. The persistently suffocating interest rates currently putting most projects on hold won’t allow investors relying on bank financing to proceed. As mentioned in our Slovakia report, banks are requiring fixed price contracts at a time when suppliers are fearful to commit to volatile price drivers like energy and general inflation.

Projects will only be ready to tender when the market is more desirable if design has taken place now. The EU Recovery and Resilience facility projects have construction between the lines: an expanded 5G network will need data centres to support it; new schools and hospitals tend to lead to the next residential and commercial hub.

Overall, it could be said that there is darkness in the Central European construction sector, nonetheless, opportunities to partner with local professionals will light the way ahead. Construction is only paused, not stopped.