Here is a tweet from Akava’s chief economist also related to the construction industry; this one covers a shorter timeframe and includes sales volumes as well 
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IS: Severe water damage in a new school in Helsinki
The quality of the construction industry is starting to hit rock bottom, at least, referring to the thread title. Could this also be one reason why new residential construction projects are not being started? With used properties, you see what you get—whether the roof holds and if the pipes leak. When you buy something new sight unseen, you get whatever happened to come out.
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I work in a property built in the city center in the 2000s. Within the last five years, issues have included a roof leak (melting snow leaking two to three floors down through the middle of the building), basement flooding, autumn rains leaking through windows into rooms, a pressure vessel bursting → water damage across two floors, multiple sewer blockages which revealed cast iron pipes instead of plastic ones, recurring problems with dishwasher drainage, and persistent elevator malfunctions.
We’ve hit rock bottom, but we could just as well stay there indefinitely. Buyer/tenant trust is pretty much at zero.
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I watched quite an interesting MOT documentary about deficiencies in firestopping. This might also be of interest to others interested in the construction industry.
The documentary discusses, among other things, relatively new buildings constructed by Skanska that have had significant deficiencies in firestopping. In one site alone, nearly 600 different firestop deficiencies were found.
Apparently, developers haven’t really faced criminal liability for these, as there are attempts to handle matters away from the public eye using various non-disclosure agreements. In the future, insurance companies may be more eager to refuse payouts in such cases. In my opinion, more accountability should also be required from the authorities so that issues aren’t just swept under the rug.
The discovery of deficiencies can, at least in theory, cause significant financial losses for companies, as carrying out repairs is challenging since the areas to be fixed are usually hidden inside the structures. Not to mention the reputational damage.
The documentary itself is at the end of the article:
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Here is a market review of the Finnish construction sector (2021-2025) by Tommi
In this review, we examine the development of the Finnish construction market in light of the data provided by Statistics Finland. We aim to articulate the story hidden behind the numbers from Statistics Finland, seek points of comparison for this story from companies’ business reports, and assess what these numbers signal about the market’s development in the near future. The overall outlook for building construction suggests steady development from a weak starting level in the near future: commercial construction acts as a buffer, but other segments appear to be developing sluggishly at best. Civil engineering has continued with healthy volumes through the market turmoil.
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Not all construction results in cubes. Roads, bridges, fairways, power, water, and sewer lines…
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How many of these new infrastructure projects you mentioned have been built in recent years? Finnish cities were completed long ago in terms of basic infrastructure, and they won’t act as a driver for a turnaround in the construction cycle. Nowadays, activity is largely comprised of annual maintenance investments, which are growing steadily, and individual strategic projects.
Easy stuff.
Based on the chart, we’ve always headed upwards from the same point we’re at now.
Answer to your question: the point where the chart line ends.
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I managed to find these using Google:
Additionally, there is Raide-Jokeri, the Tampere rail yard, etc., and wouldn’t the border fence being built on the eastern border also count as one of those projects that don’t produce those cubes?
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To be fair… Getting a building permit currently takes about 3–12 months. Single-family houses can take three months, apartment buildings are a few days over 6 months, and large projects might take around 12 months – though there are differences between cities, of course. Consequently, the number of granted building permits reflects a rather old historical picture. For example, the number of permits granted in November 2025 reflects the industry’s activity in the spring of 2025. Completed projects reflect an even older market situation.
A large portion of projects use percentage-of-completion accounting, so the revenue graph used by Akava is likely quite relevant.
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I would clarify Eka’s information by saying that Finland’s infrastructure has not been completed, and it never will be, because society and land use are constantly evolving. Change requires construction. Of course, a large part of the projects involves the renovation or renewal of old structures. Plenty of new things are also being built. There are significantly fewer completely greenfield building sites than there were in the early days.
Infrastructure is such a broad concept that there is certainly plenty to build, and the list of projects would be quite long if one were to start compiling it. Jukka provided a few examples of transport infrastructure projects above.
Infrastructure construction refers to the building of the basic technical structures required for the functioning of society, i.e., infrastructure. Infrastructure includes, for example, transport routes (roads, streets, railways), bridges, water supply, environmental and landscape structures, dams, tunnels, rock facilities and civil defense shelters, port structures and waterways, noise barriers, wastewater treatment plants, power plants and energy facilities, airports, heat transfer pipelines, and telecommunications routes.
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How has the rise in construction costs been accounted for in revenue growth? In other words, even if revenue is growing, it doesn’t necessarily indicate growth in construction volume.
Based on the Haahtela tender price index, in high-cost construction areas, tender prices are pretty much at 2021 levels. This means that if material and service prices have risen, margins are being squeezed in contracts.
On the other hand, in lower-cost construction areas, there has been no compromise on tender prices—prices have risen.
Edit: Adding this as well; the volume data ends in 11/2025. I would say that, based on this at least, I wouldn’t be heading to the town square to celebrate the start of a new construction cycle.
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And what is the basis for the claim that these infrastructure construction activities have increased so much during 2025 compared to previous infrastructure construction that they alone have pulled the entire construction industry back into an upswing that isn’t visible in the cubic volume statistics? Instead of shouting from the sidelines, why don’t you post some statistics supporting the claim about this massive increase in infrastructure construction. The projects Jukka listed were also in my message under the title “individual strategic projects,” and while they are large construction projects by Finnish standards, they are still only a minor addition compared to the construction required annually for the maintenance and replacement of the entire current infrastructure base.
I would also lean towards the idea that such individual named projects come and go.
1982 Helsinki metro (opening)
1997 Replot Bridge (opened to traffic)
1997 Kärkisten Bridge (opening)
2008 Kakolanmäki wastewater treatment plant, Turku (completed)
2008 Vuosaari Harbour, Helsinki (opened)
2009 E18 Muurla–Lohja motorway section (completed)
2014 E18 Koskenkylä–Kotka motorway section (opened in its entirety)
2015 Ring Rail Line, Vantaa (opening)
2016 Tampere Lakeside Tunnel / Highway 12 (opened to traffic)
2017 West Metro Phase 1 (commissioning)
2018 E18 Hamina–Vaalimaa (final section; opened to motorists)
2021 Tampere Tramway, Part 1 (operations started 9.8.2021)
2022 West Metro Phase 2 (Kivenlahti extension; opened)
2023 Jokeri Light Rail / light rail line 15 (traffic started 21.10.2023)
2023 Tampere Tramway, Part 2A (Pyynikintori–Santalahti in use)
2024 Kalasatama–Pasila tram / line 13 (operations started 12.8.2024)
Some data can be found on the RT website.
Data ends Q3/2025
I could imagine that the investments described here turn into revenue for construction companies with a lag; if this were to justify revenue growth, shouldn’t it perhaps have been visible in this graph already?
And furthermore, due to rising costs, the same amount of money yields less output.
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Hello! Some good perspectives have been raised here regarding the drivers behind the growth in construction revenue. Now that several types of builders have already published their results, we can highlight the segments from the comments that are performing well in the Finnish construction market.
Kreate: ”2025 was also a year of industrial investments for Kreate. Our operations in investments made in Finland expanded, which was particularly visible in data center construction.”
YIT: ”The growth of industrial investments began to materialize in Finland in 2025, and several projects are still under development. In particular, the development of the digital infrastructure market has been faster than expected.”
Consti: “Growth in new construction was driven by industrial construction, schools, and commercial premises construction. Industrial construction has been boosted especially by investments in the battery and energy industries.”
Skanska Oy: ”In 2025, revenue from construction services contracted slightly. We have won significant projects in data center and industrial construction. This has balanced out the low volume of residential construction.”
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I was clarifying the nature of infrastructure construction and the kind of need there is for infrastructure in Finland. Whether it is already finished or not. If you look at the message I quoted, that is the part I was commenting on. There is certainly plenty of infrastructure left to build—more than there is currently money available for.
Industrial projects and green transition projects are on the rise (and of course, they require infrastructure too).
Helsinki’s annual infrastructure investments also seem to be on a downward trend. Here, for example, is the budget for 2023:
New infrastructure investments are always being made, but any potential additional investments in infra are so minor that they do not explain the alleged recent turnaround in construction, which is not visible in the housing sector. The times when the public sector would invest massively in new infrastructure and thereby succeed in turning the construction cycle are long gone, because there are not enough new profitable projects. At most, some repair and renovation measures can be brought forward slightly, providing some small relief to unemployment.
For comparison, the investment budget for the Saimaa Canal exceeded the state’s annual budget at the time. Back then, there was still a lot of unbuilt infrastructure in Finland, and massive new infrastructure investments could be made.
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There certainly are projects, but the public sector doesn’t have enough money and the commencement of projects has to be delayed. That is also why the maintenance backlog is growing. Why would the maintenance backlog be allowed to grow if it weren’t about the money?
So I disagree with the claim that there aren’t enough projects and that’s why more infrastructure couldn’t be built. “Not enough money” is the more accurate answer.
Infrastructure, industrial, and green transition projects are likely the ones that will play a significant role in sustaining construction activity in the near future.
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The public sector can certainly get money at low single-digit interest rates, but even during the era of zero interest rates, it didn’t make sense to clear this “maintenance backlog” appearing in the records, because those projects are often negative-return investments, so it’s only worth making minimal mandatory investments in such infrastructure. Unfortunately, there is a very limited number of good new infrastructure projects in Finland with a sufficient rate of return on investment, as the low-hanging fruit in infrastructure construction were picked a long time ago.
Investment money is always available for good projects that generate revenue for the municipality or the state; for example, Fingrid’s extensive main grid investments. In contrast, some backwoods road is allowed to decay and be bumpy, because patching it up is purely a transfer of income from taxpayers to road users.
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