During the last year, a growing trend of the export of prefabricated houses from Bosnia and Herzegovina continued, with the products being exported to almost all European countries and only one domestic company exporting almost 200 houses to the European Union market in 2023.

The advantage of prefabricated houses is the speed of construction, energy savings and prices, and as Milenko Stevanovic, the owner of the ‘Steco center’ company in Bijeljina, northeastern BiH, which deals with the construction of prefabricated and wooden houses, said, the aesthetics of such houses are brought to perfection.

Last year, the ‘Steco center’ alone exported nearly 200 houses.

“We exported to the Netherlands, Switzerland, Croatia, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, France, Australia, England and Spain,” according to the company management.

According to the data collected by the Foreign Trade Chamber of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the value of exported prefabricated houses last year amounted to almost 36 million marks (approx 18 million euro).

The Chamber's dana shows that Bosnia-made prefabricated houses were exported to Croatia, Germany, Switzerland, Great Britain, Austria, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Slovenia, Montenegro, Luxembourg, Serbia, France, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Kosovo.

The interest of buyers in is increasing but the lack of labour force in the market also affects the decisions of investors to decide to buy a prefabricated house.

“The interest is increasing and buyers are generally well informed about prefabricated houses when they come to us for discussions,” according to Stevanovic.

Speed of construction and lower prices

As for the prices of these products on the domestic market, they range from 750 marks for the gray stage to 1,500 marks for a turnkey one, while the prices abroad are much higher, but the construction is also different.

“We need from 5 to 21 days to complete all the work on the construction site, depending on the degree of completion of the house that we contract with the investor,” said Stevanovic.

On the other hand, the import of prefabricated houses to Bosnia and Herzegovina is much lower, so last year it amounted to 1,223,165 marks (approx 61 million euro).

(1 euro = 1.95 Bosnian mark)