Thursday, 28 May 2026
Romania’s construction sector continues to face pressure from rising material costs, labour shortages, financing uncertainty and increasingly complex technical standards. According to Lucian Linta, CEO at EREN in Romania, however, the greatest challenge facing contractors today is not necessarily pricing volatility or workforce availability, but the unpredictability surrounding project financing and payment flows.
Speaking with CIJ EUROPE, Linta explained that delayed client payments continue to place significant pressure on contractors, who are expected to finance materials and labour long before payments are received for completed work stages. He noted that many projects operate with payment cycles of 60 to 120 days, while suppliers and subcontractors often require far faster settlement in order to guarantee pricing, quality and delivery schedules.
“From a general contractor’s perspective, the biggest threat is client-side financing,” Linta said. “We contract labour and materials from third parties and, in order to obtain a good quality and a good price, we have to pay them very quickly. Clients, however, often expect payment terms much longer than that.”
The situation has become increasingly difficult due to supply chain instability and geopolitical uncertainty. Linta pointed to the ongoing impact of the war in Ukraine and broader European demand pressures, particularly in relation to specialist construction materials such as mineral wool insulation, where lead times have increased considerably due to changing fire safety regulations and sustainability standards.
“The materials are becoming harder to find and harder to deliver on time,” he said. “At the same time, regulations are changing as Romania aligns itself more closely with European standards.”
EREN Romania is currently active in Bucharest, Brașov, Timișoara and Constanța, with an increasing focus on design-and-build projects. Among its newest assignments are military-related developments near Constanța, including a helicopter shelter project at Mihail Kogălniceanu Airport connected to the NATO base.
Linta said that while some defence-related projects in Romania require specialised certifications and security clearances, these current developments fall under standard construction procedures. Nevertheless, the company’s return to government-related defence projects marks a renewed expansion into the public sector after earlier collaborations more than a decade ago.
Beyond financing challenges, Linta believes that maintaining construction quality remains the defining responsibility of a general contractor, even as developers increasingly focus on reducing costs and accelerating delivery timelines.
“We do not agree to contracts if we are not one hundred percent sure we can deliver both quality and timing,” he said. “Sometimes we reject projects because the requested timelines are unrealistic.”
He recalled a recent residential project proposal in Moldova where a developer requested the structural phase to be completed in nine months. According to Linta, EREN Romania declined the timeline and proposed a 12-month schedule instead, arguing that the shorter delivery period would require night work and ultimately compromise construction standards.
“It can be done with night shifts, but the quality is not the same,” he explained. “People are not as efficient during the night and costs also increase significantly.”
Linta argued that many investors continue to underestimate the long-term operational impact of construction decisions, particularly in residential developments where upfront cost reduction often takes priority over lifecycle efficiency and durability.
“The real cost of a building is not the construction cost,” he said. “The real cost is how you operate it over time.”
According to him, insulation systems, façade quality and energy efficiency measures remain among the most overlooked areas in Romanian residential construction. He pointed specifically to the continued widespread use of plaster façades rather than ventilated façade systems, despite the latter offering significantly better long-term durability and maintenance performance.
“It is cheaper to use plaster today, but after ten years it deteriorates and must be redone,” Linta said. “Some investors think that will become the owners’ problem later, but if you want to remain in this market long term, reputation matters.”
The industrial and logistics sector continues to represent a major part of EREN Romania’s business activity, currently generating approximately half of the company’s revenues. However, Linta noted that competition within the logistics market has intensified as major developers increasingly divide projects among multiple contractors in an effort to reduce costs.
According to him, many large logistics developers now separate projects into individual packages for structure, earthworks, envelopes and technical systems rather than appointing a single general contractor. While this may lower short-term costs, Linta believes it increases complexity and places additional coordination burdens on clients.
“The client has to hire more engineers, more project managers and integrate all the subcontractors,” he said. “A general contractor takes those risks and responsibilities away from the client.”
He stressed that general contractors also absorb financial risks connected to material price increases, delays, weather conditions and subcontractor coordination, while simultaneously providing bank guarantees and financing support for projects.
“A general contractor takes the risk from the client and delivers a turnkey product,” Linta said. “Quality cannot depend on luck or individual effort. It has to be embedded into processes, reporting and financial accountability.”
Maintaining quality control has also become more difficult due to declining consistency among subcontractors, according to Linta. He explained that projects which previously required only a small on-site management team now demand significantly larger engineering oversight simply to maintain the same construction standards.
“Ten or fifteen years ago, a large warehouse project could be managed with one project manager and one site engineer,” he said. “Today we need much larger teams because subcontractor quality has decreased.”
At the same time, technology is beginning to reshape both project management and tendering processes across the Romanian construction market. Linta said EREN Romania is already implementing AI-assisted systems to automate portions of document analysis, reporting and tender evaluations.
“We are using AI to read project documentation and extract valuable information during the tendering process,” he explained. “This improves efficiency significantly.”
He believes the next major evolution will come from the integration of AI with BIM systems, particularly in project coordination, real-time reporting and construction monitoring.
“BIM combined with AI is the future of construction,” Linta said. “You will be able to monitor construction progress in real time using drones, cameras and integrated reporting systems.”
Although he does not believe construction sites will become fully automated in the near future, Linta expects clients to increasingly demand higher levels of transparency, live reporting and digital oversight throughout the entire construction lifecycle.
“The most successful contractors in the future will not necessarily be the cheapest,” he said. “They will be the companies investing in technology, systems and long-term processes.”
Linta also raised concerns regarding Romania’s broader infrastructure strategy and the country’s ability to fully utilise available European funding. According to him, Romania remains insufficiently prepared to convert approved EU financing programmes into deliverable projects, particularly under the PNRR framework.
“We are losing money because we are not prepared,” he said. “Projects are approved too late and the market reacts only at the last minute.”
He argued that Romania still lacks a coherent long-term infrastructure master plan, particularly in areas such as highways, rail transport and logistics connectivity.
“We are building disconnected segments instead of complete transport corridors,” Linta said. “Infrastructure should connect the major cities, logistics centres, ports and borders in order to support economic growth.”
Despite these concerns, Linta remains optimistic about Romania’s long-term development potential, particularly in logistics, infrastructure and public investment sectors such as healthcare.
“Romania needs infrastructure,” he concluded. “Without transport, railways and proper planning, sustainable development cannot happen.”
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