After many months of stagnation, prices of building materials have once again increased noticeably. In April, they were on average 2.1% higher than a year earlier, which is the strongest result in nearly three years. This time, the leading category with a double-digit year-on-year price increase was thermal insulation, ahead of OSB boards and timber, which also continued to rise sharply. This suggests that the nearly two-year period of price stagnation may have come to an end, and that the building materials market has entered a phase of moderate growth once again.
The latest data from Grupa PSB, presenting the dynamics of building material prices in April 2026, showed a clear return of the average price index to positive territory, with an increase of 2.1%. In the current economic environment, such a noticeable rise may signal the beginning of a new trend in the building materials market.
In retail sales, prices increased only slightly, by 0.3%. Meanwhile, materials sold in wholesale became significantly more expensive, with prices rising by 4.2%. This is the clearest signal in many months that the market is beginning to accelerate again.
The difference between price dynamics in the wholesale and retail channels is particularly interesting. While retail sales showed only a symbolic increase in prices, wholesale dynamics exceeded 4%, reaching the highest level in many quarters. Such a divergence may indicate both a faster transfer of rising producer costs to the wholesale channel and an improvement in investment activity in residential construction. In practice, wholesale often moves ahead of retail, so the current increases may foreshadow a further strengthening of the upward trend in building material prices in the coming months.
Source: RynekPierwotny.pl based on data from Grupa PSB
“In this way, the long-established stabilisation of the slightly negative horizontal trend has, with high probability, definitively come to an end,” forecasts Jarosław Jędrzyński, an expert at RynekPierwotny.pl.
This time, the shift of the average price dynamics into clearly positive territory resulted from an increase in the number of product groups recording a similar positive year-on-year price change. In April 2026, compared with the same month of 2025, price increases were recorded in as many as twelve product groups. In one case, prices remained unchanged, while in the remaining seven categories they fell.
The strongest price increases were recorded in thermal insulation, up 13.5%, and OSB boards and timber, up 11.1%. The largest declines were seen in three categories: surroundings of the house, down 4.1%; finishing materials, down 2.8%; and automotive products, down 1.7%.
| No. | Product group | April 2026 / April 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| 15 | Thermal insulation | 13.5% |
| 1 | OSB boards, timber | 11.1% |
| 20 | Waterproofing insulation | 3.2% |
| 2 | Paints, varnishes | 3.1% |
| 9 | Drywall systems | 3.1% |
| 7 | Tiles, bathrooms, kitchens | 2.2% |
| 14 | Walls, chimneys | 1.7% |
| 13 | Roofs, gutters | 1.6% |
| 11 | Installations, heating | 1.1% |
| 6 | Construction chemicals | 0.9% |
| 3 | Cement, lime | 0.9% |
| 5 | Decorations | 0.2% |
| 12 | Joinery | 0.0% |
| 10 | Tools | -0.4% |
| 4 | Garden, hobby | -0.7% |
| 16 | Equipment, household appliances | -0.9% |
| 19 | Lighting, electrical products | -1.4% |
| 8 | Automotive | -1.7% |
| 17 | Finishing materials | -2.8% |
| 18 | Surroundings of the house | -4.1% |
| Average | 2.1% |
Price dynamics of building materials in April 2026, year on year
Source: Grupa PSB Handel S.A.
The return of strong price increases in thermal insulation deserves particular attention. This category of materials is among the most sensitive to changes in the prices of petrochemical raw materials, energy and transport. A year-on-year increase of 13.5% can therefore hardly be considered accidental. In practice, it may be the first clearer signal that the effects of higher oil and gas prices, observed after the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East, are being passed on to the building materials market.
At the same time, there are more and more indications that changes on the demand side are also supporting price growth. April proved to be an exceptionally strong investment period for the primary residential market. During that month, developers started the construction of more than 15,000 flats and houses, making it the best April in the history of Statistics Poland data.
According to industry data, developers also recorded a clear increase in flat sales in March, while the activity of individual investors planning to build single-family houses also improved. As a result, producers of building materials may gradually be regaining the pricing power they had lost in previous quarters.
This does not yet mean a return to the double-digit price increases seen in 2021–2022. Current macroeconomic conditions remain much more stable, and competition among producers is strong. However, after nearly two years of stagnation and slight price declines, there are growing signs that the building materials market has entered a new phase of the business cycle, in which the dominant direction of change may once again be moderate but systematic price growth.
