According to the Ifo Institute’s quarterly Architects Survey, the mood among freelance architects in Germany improved at the beginning of the first quarter of 2012, despite a slight deterioration in the business situation.
In terms of the six-month business outlook, the upward trend present for some time seems to be continuing. This was reflected by a clear increase in confidence on the part of the architects surveyed: 1 in 6 participants (or around 16 percent) expected the order situation to be “slightly more favourable” in six months, versus 12 percent last quarter.
One of the main reasons for the increasing optimism was probably the high number of contracts concluded: around 57 percent of participants concluded new contracts in the last quarter of 2011. Significantly higher figures have not been achieved since this Ifo survey began around 30 years ago. After two quarters of decreasing planned volume, estimated construction volume from newly signed contracts increased by almost 50 percent versus the previous quarter.
Contracts for detached and semi-detached house planning were a good 50 percent higher than in the previous quarter. Planning contracts for multi-family buildings also increased substantially. The overall volume of orders taken in the fourth quarter of 2011 hit a 14-year high and was 70 percent higher than in the previous quarter.
The scope of the planning orders received by the architects surveyed was almost twice as great as in the third quarter of 2011. Only public contracting authorities showed caution. The number of orders that they placed with freelance architects decreased slightly versus the previous quarter.
The average backlog of orders only just fell short of the record peak achieved in summer 2011 (6.1 months) and was reported to be around 6.0 months at the end of 2011.
Erich Gluch, “ifo Architektenumfrage: Erfreuliche Entwicklung im Wohnungsbau”, ifo Schnelldienst 65 (5), 2012, 50-51 (in German).
Ifo Architects Survey: Positive Development in Housing Construction Results of the Ifo Architects Survey of 1st quarter 2012 File size: 69 KB
Legend: The Ifo Institute has conducted its quarterly survey of freelance architects Germany-wide since 1996 (since 1980 in only four federal states) among a panel of 1,800 architects. The survey gathers data on the business climate, new contracts – from which construction volume is estimated – as well as orders on hand. The quarterly data is supplemented by annually surveyed data on how large the architectural offices are and on their legal forms and volume of fees.
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