Residential Construction Activity in Europe: New-Build Activity Sees Sharp Upturn in 2016 – Selected results of the EUROCONSTRUCT Summer Conference 2016

The European residential construction market will grow by over 3% this year, according to the experts of the EUROCONSTRUCT network. Stimuli will mainly come from the new construction sector. Residential new construction in the 19 member states will expand by a good 5½% in total in 2016. Six months ago, by contrast, experts expected growth of over 6%. According to the latest revisions, new construction developed far more favourably last year than initially expected. The upturn totalled almost 3%. Measures related to housing stock, which are usually far more stable than new construction, will increase by 1½% in 2016. The present framework conditions for residential construction are highly favourable. The improved economic outlook, low interest rates on mortgages, pronounced immigration and internal migration, as well as government incentives should also ensure that the volume of residential construction services increases by a total of 8% over the next three years through 2018. This figure will be far higher in Ireland (+ 54%), Hungary (+ 30%) and Portugal (+ 27%). While the strong upturn in construction output nevertheless cannot keep pace with the significant increase in demand for living space in Ireland, no major recovery is expected in Italy in the medium term.