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building the 450-kilometre Moldavian Expressway (Autostrada Moldovei). Currently, about 3,000 people are working around the clock on its construction. The highway will connect the capital of Romania, Bucharest, with Ukraine's western borders, namely with the Chernivtsi region. The route will give Kyiv access to Romanian ports in the Black Sea.
Chisinau will build a highway connecting the EU with Moldova and Ukraine. Moldova signed an agreement with the EBI regarding the preliminary calculations necessary to implement the Iasi-Ungheni-Chisinau-Odesa highway construction project.
Demand for new trucks increased by 65%. It is noted that 11,300 new vehicles were added to Ukraine’s fleet of trucks and special vehicles last year, 65% more than in 2022. In December, 1,160 such vehicles were sold in Ukraine, 12% more than in November and 26% more than in December 2022. Last month's top five automotive brands included: Renault – 259 cars, Volkswagen – 117, MAN – 111, Ford – 78, and Fiat – 71.
The state spent about ₴130B ($3.4B) constructing roads and infrastructure. Director of Prozorro Mykola Tkachenko said that the main spending direction for state enterprises in the purchase of goods and services through the Prozorro system in 2023 was for the construction of roads and infrastructure - about ₴130B.
9.1.4 Construction & Real estate sector news
Housing is becoming more expensive in Ukraine: prices have soared by 14%. In the first nine months of 2023, housing prices in Ukraine increased by 13.9% (compared to the corresponding period of 2022). In the primary market, growth was 12.2%, and in the secondary market, it was 15.1%.
Ukraine's real estate market has become more active - the number of transactions has increased by 70% in a year. Last year, state and private notaries certified 172,628 contracts for the purchase and sale of apartments and residential buildings in Ukraine, according to the Ministry of Justice's report. This is 71% more compared to 2022 (100,710). Also, in 2023, notaries certified 231,881 contracts to purchase and sell land plots. This is almost 74% more than in 2022, when 133,447 plots were sold. In 2023, Ukrainians concluded 15,918 mortgage contracts, of which 10,775 were for apartments and residential buildings and 1,127 were for land plots. In 2022, 8,933 mortgage contracts were registered, of which 5,410 were apartments and residential buildings, and 834 were land plots. The overall increase in mortgage contracts compared to the previous year is 78%; mortgage contracts for apartments and houses increased by 100%, and land plot sales increased by 35%. At the same time, in the pre-war year 2021, notaries certified 320,165 contracts for purchasing and selling apartments and residential buildings, and the number of land plots sold was 301,518.
Last year, the volume of land sales increased by 58%, and prices are expected to rise this year. As stated in the review of the KSE, despite the significant growth in the agricultural land market in 2023, it has not yet reached pre-war indicators. Land turnover in 2023 increased by 58% compared to 2022 and covered 172,900 hectares. At the same time, the growth rate of the weighted average price for agricultural land was somewhat more modest -
87 UKRAINE Country Report February 2024 www.intellinews.com