Construction materials market needs state boost, says industry rep

Budapest, January 4 (MTI) – The state needs to provide incentives for new home building and home renovations, which would give a lift to the construction materials industry, the president of the construction-sector association MEASZ told MTI on Sunday.

Gyozo Vidor said the state must give the first boost to the sector of materials, adding that MEASZ has prepared a proposal for a home builders’ scheme. Under the scheme, applicants planning to build energy efficient homes would be offered a loan at a fixed 2.5 percent interest rate, a grant from the state, as well as a partial VAT refund on invoices of purchases. Another state-run programme could increase the rate of home renovations, Vidor added.

Despite an expected 15 percent rise in the construction industry in 2014, the construction materials market will only see single-digit growth, he said. This is due to the fact that infrastructure investments, which drive the construction sector, use only few materials manufactured in this segment.

The largest growth was in window and door sales, nearly 10 percent last year, partly generated by imports, Vidor said. A lack of skilled labour could soon be a problem, too, with several regions in Hungary already lacking qualified repairmen for window fitting or installment of insulation, he said.

The Socialist Party said there had not been so few homes built in Hungary as today in a hundred years. Ildiko Borbely Bango, the party’s lawmaker, told a press conference on Sunday that slightly more than 7,200 homes were built in 2013, and 5,100 in January-September last year. In comparison 44,000 homes were built in 2008, 28,000 in 2009 and 17,000 in 2010, she said.

The 2015 budget points to a further decline in home-building figures, as home subsidies will be cut by 30 billion forints (EUR 95.3m), she said.

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters