2012 in the construction sector of Azerbaijan was accompanied by implementation of new infrastructure projects and commissioning of ready facilities. The major facilities, commissioned in 2012, include sports complexes, hotels, stadiums, educational buildings, as well as industrial buildings. Construction and repair of more than 420 social facilities is underway. In particular, in 2012, 268 schools, 62 kindergartens, 40 health facilities, 27 - sports, 29 - cultural and other social facilities were constructed and repaired in Azerbaijan.
As for active ongoing road construction, during the reporting period 537.2 km of roads, including 134.6 km of roads of national significance, 402.6 km - local roads were repaired, 25 bridges on the roads were built. Some 94 kilometers of roads, avenues and streets were repaired, six pedestrian crossings were commissioned. Also, work on the reconstruction of the road from the Neftchilar Avenue and Sabunchu Bridge to Zabrat circle was completed. Some 6.462.2 billion manat from the state budget was spent for the construction of public facilities.
According to the State Statistics Committee of Azerbaijan, in 2012, construction work increased in Azerbaijan by 19.6 percent compared to 2011 and amounted to 7.43 billion manat.
Some 72.4 percent of the total volume of construction work fell to the primary construction, reconstruction and expansion, 14.1 percent - overhaul, 2.2 percent - current repair, 11.3 percent - other construction work.
According to official statistics, in 2012, companies engaged in the manufacture of building materials in Azerbaijan, produced goods worth 311.7 million manat, or 16.9 percent higher than in 2011. In 2012, 2 million tons of cement (a growth of 38.9 percent during the year), 149,400 tons of gypsum plaster (a 1.5-fold increase), 1.2 million tons of finished concrete mixture (a 8.6-percent increase), and 560,200 tons of asphalt (a 1.6-fold increase) were produced.
As of Jan.1, 2013 warehouses of enterprises have stock of finished construction products at 11.8 million manat, or 4 percent of the total finished goods in warehouses of the country.
In 2012, Azerbaijan, according to the State Property Committee, recorded property rights for about 150,000 real estates properties. In addition, during the reporting period, over 32,000 mortgage contracts were recorded.
In 2012, technical inventory of about 140,000 real estate properties was carried out, technical certificates were compiled.
At the same time, according to the State Statistics Committee, during the reporting period housing commissioning decreased by 9 per cent to 1.757 million square meters in Azerbaijan, which is associated with a reduction in the rate of construction " of new buildings".
In 2012, Baku real estate market prices increased by 3.1 percent, CEO of the MBA Group consulting company said. The relatively high growth was recorded in the housing market - by 8.5 percent (in 2012 a square meter of housing in Baku was worth, on average, $1,314, in 2011 - $1,214). Moreover, in the secondary market, housing prices rose by 9.8 percent, in the primary - by 8.1 percent.
In 2012, commercial properties market prices increased by 8.4 percent, rental charges for these objects rose by 2 percent, and the cost of housing rent - by 3 percent. Price decrease was recorded only in the land market, during the year prices fell by 7.9 percent.
The reason causing the increase in prices in the housing market is the excess of demand over supply, which is contributed to by growth in the money supply in the country and increase of incomes. No major changes were introduced to the cost of housing that increased by only 2 percent, as the prices for construction materials remained stable throughout the year
Reduction of prices in the land market can be attributed to more stringent requirements to the documents on land. If a few years ago, little attention was given to the documents, currently, the lands with no documents are not highly demanded, which eventually leads to a decrease in buying and selling transactions and lowering of prices. There also were external factors that hindered the strong growth in prices. Among such factors are relative reduction of oil and gas prices on world markets by year-end and limiting external financing