Russia's roughly $50 billion construction market: China took $9.8 billion, the UAE $3.2 billion and Türkiye $2.7 billion

A Mehr News Agency report published on Monday, 27 July 2026 (5 Mordad 1405), says Russia's technical, engineering and construction services market has become one of the most attractive destinations for non-Western contractors following the broad withdrawal of Western firms. The report puts the value of Russia's residential construction market at close to 50 billion dollars, against a global residential construction market it values at about 2.3 trillion dollars.

According to the estimates in the report, China was active in about 9.8 billion dollars of industrial construction projects in Russia last year, the United Arab Emirates invested roughly 3.2 billion dollars in transport and port development projects, and Turkish companies had a presence worth about 2.7 billion dollars in infrastructure and residential projects. The Russian government had projected about 3.9 trillion roubles of investment in housing for 2025, of which roughly 800 billion roubles was earmarked for the central region and the city of Moscow.

Iran's share of this market remains small. Ali Naghavi, head of the technical, engineering and construction services commission at the Iran Chamber of Commerce, said Iran has in many areas failed to use market studies in a way that lets the private sector expand its activity in target markets. The report identifies import-substitution policy, the wide role of state companies, a complex tendering system, inflation above 10 percent, and difficulties with project financing and bank guarantees as the main barriers for Iranian firms.