Serbia’s construction industry expanded in real terms during the second quarter of 2026, but the recovery was concentrated heavily in building projects and the Belgrade market, while civil engineering and activity across most other regions contracted.
The value of construction work performed in Serbia rose 20.6% year on year at current prices, according to preliminary data from the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia. After accounting for changes in construction costs, real growth stood at 9%. The 11.6-percentage-point gap between nominal and real growth indicates that higher construction costs continued to contribute substantially to the increase in the sector’s monetary value. At the same time, the real result confirms that the volume of construction work was higher than in the second quarter of 2025.
Building construction offsets infrastructure decline
Building construction was responsible for most of the sector’s expansion. Measured at constant prices, building activity in Serbia increased 32.4% from a year earlier. Civil engineering moved in the opposite direction, with real activity falling 7.1%. The category includes transport infrastructure, pipelines and other major infrastructure works. The same division appeared in the total activity of Serbian contractors, including projects carried out abroad. Their building construction output increased 30.2% in real terms, while civil engineering work decreased 7.7% compared with the second quarter of 2025. The figures indicate that residential, commercial and other building projects provided the main contribution to the quarterly recovery, while infrastructure construction continued to reduce overall growth.
Belgrade records 51% increase
Regional figures show that the recovery was substantially narrower than the national result suggests. At constant prices, construction activity increased only in the Belgrade Region, where the value of work performed rose 51% year on year in the second quarter.
All other statistical regions recorded declines. Southern and Eastern Serbia posted the steepest contraction, with activity down 32.3%. Construction in Šumadija and Western Serbia fell 27.5%, while Vojvodina recorded a comparatively smaller decline of 2%. The regional distribution means that the national increase was driven predominantly by construction activity in the capital. The concentration also links the overall sector result closely to the timing and execution of projects in Belgrade.
Second quarter outpaces first-half performance
Compared with the first quarter of 2026, the real value of work performed by Serbian contractors increased 54.5% in the second quarter. Quarter-to-quarter construction data are affected by seasonal conditions, making the comparison subject to those fluctuations. The first-half figures provide a broader measure of sector performance. During the first six months of 2026, the real value of all work performed by Serbian contractors, both domestically and abroad, was only 0.2% higher than in the corresponding period of 2025. For work performed inside Serbia, the increase was 1.3%.
Building construction again recorded the strongest performance. Within Serbia, its real value increased 25% during the first half, while civil engineering declined 13.7%. The figures show a significant acceleration during the second quarter following weaker construction activity at the beginning of the year.
Foreign construction activity contracts
Serbian contractors remained overwhelmingly focused on the domestic market during the second quarter. 99.1% of their construction work was performed in Serbia, while projects outside the country represented 0.9% of total activity. The real value of work performed abroad declined 49.5% year on year in the second quarter. During the first six months, foreign construction activity was down 52.1% in real terms. Although international projects represented only a small portion of contractors’ overall activity, the decline indicates a substantial reduction in Serbian construction companies’ work outside the domestic market.
New contract values weaken in real terms
Newly contracted work provides a mixed indication for the coming quarters. At current prices, the value of contracts signed during the second quarter was 6.2% higher than in the same period of 2025. After adjusting for construction costs, however, the value declined 4% in real terms. For the first half of 2026, new contracts showed considerably stronger growth. Their value increased 30.6% at current prices and 19.7% at constant prices.
The six-month increase provides a larger pipeline of contracted work, while the second-quarter decline in real terms indicates that the pace of new contracting was weaker after adjusting for construction-cost increases. The statistical results are preliminary and come from a quarterly survey covering enterprises considered important for construction activity, rather than a complete census of all construction companies operating in Serbia.
