Continued demand for new housing development
The production value of building construction in Estonia and in foreign countries was 2.2 billion euros and the production of civil engineering works totalled 1.0 billion euros. Compared to 2018, the volume of building construction increased by 8% and the volume of civil engineering decreased by 6%.
The domestic construction market was affected the most by a decrease in the construction volume of civil engineering works. The construction of buildings, however, remained on the plus side due to the successful last quarter of 2019. The construction volume of Estonian construction enterprises in foreign countries increased by more than 50% compared to 2018 mainly on account of bigger volume of building construction. Construction in foreign countries accounted for 8% of the total volume of construction in 2019, compared to 6% the year before.
New dwelling construction has been on a growth trend since 2012. According to the data of the Register of Construction Works, in 2019, the number of dwelling completions was 7,014, which is 542 dwellings more than the year before. As in previous years, the majority of completed dwellings were situated in Tallinn, followed by the rural municipalities in the vicinity of Tallinn, and in Tartu county. The majority of completed dwellings had two or four rooms. The floor area of completed dwellings was 94 square metres on average.
In 2019, building permits were granted for the construction of 8,025 dwellings. The most popular type of residential building was a block of flats. The number of completed non-residential buildings was 1,410, with a useful floor area of 0.7 billion square metres – these were primarily new industrial, storage and trade premises. Compared to 2018, the useful floor area as well as the cubic capacity of completed non‑residential buildings decreased.
In the 4th quarter of 2019, the production value of construction amounted to 877 million euros, which is 9% more than in the 4th quarter of 2018. The volume of building construction increased by a fifth and the volume of civil engineering decreased by 8%.
The statistics are based on the questionnaire “Economic activity, quarter”, the submission date of which was 21 January 2020. Statistics Estonia published the quarterly summary in 25 working days. For the statistical activity “Financial statistics of enterprises (quarterly)”, the main representative of public interest is the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, commissioned by whom Statistics Estonia collects and analyses the data necessary for conducting the statistical activity.