The business of fear: bunker sales soar amid threats of world war
- A new world war?
- Russia, the greatest nuclear threat
- Demand for shelters increases in times of crisis
- Designing a bunker according to the client's needs
- Bunkers on four continents
- Presidential bunker
- Catastrophe-proof
- A business that only a few dominate
- For all budgets
- An unexpected situation
- Booming market of bomb shelters in the US
A new world war?

Ever since Russia's invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, 2022, the world has been engulfed in speculations of a global war fearing a nuclear attack.
Russia, the greatest nuclear threat

While the US has given permission to Ukraine to use long-range weapons inside Russia, according to the Arms Control Association, Russia has more than 6,000 atomic bombs, more than any country in the world.
Demand for shelters increases in times of crisis

All of this has translated into an increase in sales of nuclear bunkers in Europe and the US. One of the leading experts in this type of construction is Spanish engineer Antonio Alcahud, who has built more than 600 concrete shelters since the 1970s.
Photo: Unsplash/Erik Mclean
Designing a bunker according to the client's needs

Their bunkers for private clients have different capacities, for 25, 500, or 2,000 people, according to Spanish media outlet El Español, and their prices start at 50,000 euros, which allows for the purchase of a 50-square-meter bunker.
Photo: Unsplash/Thom Milkovic
Bunkers on four continents

The engineer along with his company ABQ, works confidentially on four continents and interacts with heads of state, billionaires, and small property owners looking to acquire one of his famous bunkers.
Photo: Unsplash/Burgess Milner
Presidential bunker

Even La Moncloa (the presidential residency in Spain) has a nuclear bunker with armored doors, bedrooms, and communications rooms, which was revisited after the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, according to Vóz Populi.
Catastrophe-proof

ABQ claims its shelters protect against hurricanes of up to 800 kilometers per hour and tsunamis, fires, terrorist attacks, and weapons of mass destruction. The deeper the bunker, the more resistant it will be, El Español reports.
A business that only a few dominate

"There's active demand and interest because there aren't many suppliers available," Mario Piejde, technical director of BSSD-Defense, a Berlin-based company that has seen its sales soar again in the wake of the war in Ukraine, told DW.
For all budgets

This company has received calls from private citizens, firefighters, and city councils interested in its constructions, ranging from "panic rooms" for €20,000 to large-scale bunkers for €200,000.
Photo: Unsplash/Alex Holzreiter
An unexpected situation

"No one would have expected that a conventional war could be fought again in Europe, but history keeps repeating itself. People who had been considering it before have now begun to put their plans into practice," said the director of BSSD-Defense.
Booming market of bomb shelters in the US

Similarly, in the US, the market for bomb and fallout shelters is forecast to grow from $137 million last year to $175 million by 2030, according to a market research report from BlueWeave Consulting.