Because licensing is proceeding faster, private projects are rebounding in Guatemala and the sector in general expects to close 2018 with a 3% increase.
Representatives of the Guatemalan Chamber of Construction (CGC), explained that the positive behavior of the sector this year is because of the liberalization of licenses for the construction of projects that were pending to be authorized and new investments made.
A bureaucracy that keeps delaying delivery of construction licenses, is now joined by a possible cement tax proposed by the government.
Entrepreneurs in the sector anticipate a relatively poor performance for the sector in the remainder of the year, although no significant increases are expected in the prices of materials in general.The possibility that the proposal to levy $0.65 per sack of cement actually materializes comes on top of problems faced in obtaining building permits, which has forced some projects to grind to a halt.
While in the US the number of man hours needed to build a house is 9.4 hours per square meter, in Costa Rica it takes between 40 and 60.
Low labor productivity, on top of the cost of building materials, social charges and high costs of other materials such as energy, are preventing firms from being more competitive in an industry where both end house prices for completed works and gray works, exceed those in neighboring countries.
Contribution to GDP by country: Panama - 17.4%, Honduras - 6.4%, Nicaragua - 5.3%, Costa Rica - 5.1%, El Salvador- 3.0%, Guatemala - 2.8%.
A report by the Regional Organization of Chambers of the Construction Industry in Central America and the Caribbean (Ordecccac) provides figures for the construction sector in 2012 for the countries in the region, as well as projections for 2013 and 2014.