What can Polish construction workers envy the Germans for? The clients got it

• Over the past decade, fluctuations in construction production in Germany have ranged from minus 1% to plus 6% year-on-year, while for Poland the range was from minus 16% to plus 25%.
• According to Damian Kaźmierczak, vice-chairman and chief economist of the Polish Association of Construction Employers, it is the fault of the ordering parties who, despite knowing the schedule of EU funds flowing to Poland, "do little to plan the implementation of projects wisely".
• - Each ministry and its contracting entities operate in their own silos, implement investments without cooperation with other stakeholders, and at the central level no one coordinates government infrastructure programs - Kaźmierczak points out.

Damian Kaźmierczak, vice-chairman and chief economist of the Polish Construction Employers' Association, likes to analyze and comment (not only in social media) on trends in the construction sector . This time, based on Eurostat data, he looked at the fluctuations in construction production in Poland and Germany between 2015 and 2025.

Conclusions? Over the last decade , fluctuations in construction production in our western neighbour's country ranged from minus 1% to plus 6% compared to the previous year, while for Poland the range of fluctuations was from minus 16% to plus 25%.

- The main reason for this situation is primarily the improper planning of investments by the state administration and public contracting authorities . They know perfectly well the schedule of the inflow of EU funds to Poland, on which a large part of infrastructure investments depend, but they do little to wisely plan the implementation of projects and provide new financing mechanisms based on national funds. As a result , each ministry and its contracting authority operate in their own silos , implement investments without cooperation with other stakeholders, and at the central level, no one coordinates government infrastructure programs - assesses Dr. Damian Kaźmierczak. In his opinion, this is the reason why the Polish construction market, which is one of the largest in Europe in terms of value, moves on a specific sinusoid - from deep "holes" to high "peaks", which in effect destabilizes the entire sector.

- In addition, this situation is compounded by the specific nature of the state: "ministerial Poland" often coexists with "coalition Poland" , because infrastructure investments are divided between several ministries, which are often supervised by various coalition groups that form the government - says the deputy chairman of the PZPB.

- A shaky market is a terrible environment for construction companies, which cannot develop evenly and sustainably. Planning for several years ahead becomes impossible, because most companies are unable to predict the market situation in a few or even a dozen months - he adds.

It remains to wait until the share of renovations increases? They stabilize the market dynamics

The accusation of improper investment planning by the state administration and public procurers is nothing new. It has been repeated more or less bluntly for years by representatives of construction companies and industry organizations representing this environment.

- We are starting everything because we don't know what will happen next. PLK's plans end in 2025, but what about 2026 and 2027? We don't have published CPK plans either. Until we know the tender plans for a longer perspective than one year, nothing will change in this matter. The market expects investment planning - said Marita Szustak, president of the management board of the Chamber of Commerce of Land Transport and president of the management board of Track Tec Construction, during the European Economic Congress in the context of planning railway investments.

- What will we do as a country after 2030 when the last probably such a large EU perspective ends and we will need other sources of financing? - asked Artur Popko, president of Budimex , at the same time drawing attention to the "bottleneck in the administration" resulting in the fact that in some road investments, due solely to the slow administrative process , delays have already reached from one to even two years.

- We have been urging GDDKiA for many years to change its approach, to at least partially switch from the "design and build" formula to "build" so that the projects are ready, lie on the shelf and can be implemented later - said Popko.

Commentators on Kaźmierczak's analysis on social media point out that the instability of the construction market he raised causes companies to operate in a reactive mode , which in turn translates into further problems: from mass annexes and contract claims, through risks related to indexation, to difficulties with financial and insurance support for projects.

Some also point out that the greater volatility of the construction markets in Central and Eastern Europe compared to, for example, Germany, Spain or Italy can be partly explained by the fact that in our region approx. 70% of the market is new construction, and only approx. 30% is renovation of existing infrastructure, while in Western European countries these proportions are exactly the opposite.

- A higher share of renovations stabilizes the market dynamics . Along with the higher level of development of Polish construction, the dynamics will gradually flatten, which has already happened when switching between two 7-year EU budgets: the correction from 2024 is -8%, while in 2016 we experienced -16% - indicates in the commentary Bartłomiej Sosna, construction market expert at Spectis.