Albanian Construction Wages Rose 24.8% While Construction Output Grew Just 4.2%
Albanian construction wages rose 24.8% year on year in the second quarter while the production index gained 4.2%, INSTAT data published on 16 September show.
Albanian construction wages rose 24.8% year on year in the second quarter of 2026, while the construction production volume index gained 4.2%, according to short-term statistics published by INSTAT on 16 September. A twenty-point gap between what the sector pays and what it produces is the single most informative number in the release.
The sector is paying much more to build a little more
The construction production volume index stood at 133.3 on a 2021 base, up 4.2% on the year and 1.2% on the previous quarter. Turnover ran ahead of it, with the volume index at 134.4 and growth of 5.6% year on year and 5.1% quarter on quarter. Employment in the sector rose 5.2%.
So the workforce grew faster than output, and pay per worker grew nearly six times faster than output. Whatever is happening to Albanian construction, it is not a productivity story.
Industry is not competing for the same workers
The contrast with the rest of the goods-producing economy is sharp. Industrial turnover reached an index of 90.0, up 2.2%, and industrial production 92.7, up 2.6%. Industrial wages rose 9.7% — a strong figure in isolation, and less than half the construction rate. Industrial employment fell 2.0%.
Construction is adding workers while industry sheds them, and construction is outbidding industry by fifteen percentage points of wage growth. Both industrial indices also remain below their 2021 base, while both construction indices sit well above it.
Albania is one of the thinnest rows we publish, and we would rather say so
The Glopra country row for Albania carries no price per square metre, no rent and no yield, and the reasons are written into the row rather than left as a silent gap. INSTAT publishes no house price index at all. The Bank of Albania's half-yearly index gives percentage change without levels, and a percentage change cannot be turned into a price. No Albanian publisher states a rent per square metre at any geographic level, which is why there is no Albanian rental yield anywhere in our data, not even for the capital.
What we do carry sits on the Tirana row: an average of 2,452.88 dollars per square metre from the Keydata Albania index published by Celesi Media Group for June 2026. We rate that entry Low confidence and the reason is specific — the index itself is behind a subscription, so our figure comes from a press citation of it rather than from the publication. Tirana prices are up 18% over twelve months in local currency and 17.8% in dollars, with the lek almost flat at minus 0.2%. Round-trip transaction costs are 6.3% and rental income is taxed at 15%.
One number deserves to be read alongside this quarter's wage figure: our bubble score for Tirana is 89, which places it in the high band. An 18% annual price rise in a capital where construction costs are climbing at 24.8% and no rent series exists to test the price against is exactly the configuration that score is built to flag. It is also a score resting on a Low-confidence price, and that caveat travels with it.
Sources: Institute of Statistics of Albania (INSTAT), Short Term Statistics, Producers of Goods, second quarter 2026, published 16 September 2026 https://www.instat.gov.al/media/rf0cupal/short-term-statistics-producers-of-goods-q2-2026.pdf