The latest figures on Kazakhstan’s construction industry have been released by Astana, revealing total spending on building work has grown 6.8% from January to May 2016. Construction spending has topped 733 billion tenge, over $2 billion, during this period.

 

All areas of construction across the Central Asian state have contributed to this recorded growth. Spending on housebuilding rose by 9.9%, alongside a 20% growth in square metreage, renovation and maintenance grew by 25% while a further 11% more has been spent on building new facilities.

 

This follows on from a huge $1 billion injection in housing construction by Kazakhstan’s President, Nursultan Nazarbayev. 360 billion tenge, just over $1 billion, has been set aside for the building of affordable housing across the country following a Presidential announcement in February 2016. A surge in housing construction is 

expected across the next five years as Kazakhstan is heavily investing in its “Affordable Housing 2020” programme.

 

These results are particularly impressive seeing as the value of Kazakhstan’s currency, the tenge, has increased 14% against the dollar across the same period. Given the fact that Kazakhstan relies heavily on imported materials for its construction, this often means increases in spending is due to material costs rather than more actual building work taking place.

 

However, the growth in spending observed so far in 2016 has happened in a time when it is cheaper for Kazakhstan’s builders to import materials from overseas – showing the strong fundamentals behind these latest figures.

 

While traditional building sectors, such as housing and infrastructure, will exhibit growth in the coming years, assuming this construction activity is sustainable, green building is an emerging industry in Kazakhstan. 

 

President Nazarbayev is keen for Kazakhstan to become a “green economy” by 2030, so a range of eco-friendly construction projects will be occurring across the nation until this date. 

 

Subsequently, construction activity is likely to remain high in Kazakhstan for years to come.