László Koji: A good year

For the past year and a half, you can regularly listen to the podcasts of ÉVOSZ Spakli’21. At the beginning of this year, László Koji was a guest on the programme. In his conversation with János Bene, he discussed a number of data points that will define this year.

"I thought a lot about whether to sit in on the show, but I decided it was worth it, because there is always something to say at the beginning of the year," began the conversation with the president of ÉVOSZ, who gave a surprisingly positive answer to a question about his assessment of the past year:

"As President I have to deal with the whole value chain. We are having a good year, I wish our worst year could be the same. There is no doubt that the value of construction activity nationwide is 5% less than it was in 2022, but we are measuring against a very high base. Even so, the construction industry has delivered 7200 billion forints at current prices.

"There is a wide variation," he added, "because there are some areas where the volume is down by 10-12%, mainly in road-rail and housing, while logistics and factories are better than they were in 2022.

The situation is different for housing

"The situation in housing is sad," the President said, turning to the underperforming sectors. 'We have 17-18 thousand dwellings with occupancy permits against 20,000 in 2022, and the picture is even more dismal in that what needs to be built this year is 40% less than it was a year ago.

Housing construction is not yet at its lowest point, and this is expected this year.

As we have seen with house prices, government measures such as the CSOK+ may mitigate this fall somewhat, but we are in for a difficult year in this area. Related to this, prices in the second-hand market have fallen and will continue to do so until the middle of this year. They will strengthen if the borrowing rate goes below 5%. László Koji does not expect any price moderation for new builds, because there will be demand for them, especially in the capital, the agglomeration zone and the Lake Balaton area.

The podcast also answers questions such as:

• How does the ÉVOSZ weight between sectors and find a common denominator?
• What are the main problems and how does the ÉVOSZ propose to solve them?
• How can ÉVOSZ help businesses?
• What has made it possible for so many top professionals to find it important to work together in ÉVOSZ?
• What is the Alliance's relationship with Építési és Közlekedési Minisztérium?
• How can ÉVOSZ influence laws and regulations?
• When is the President of ÉVOSZ satisfied?

The broadcast is available from a computer or mobile device by clicking on this link.