58
58

CESCE: The Construction Sector Will Grow By 3% In 2015

18 August 2015 – Expansión

The construction sector will grow by 3% in 2015 and building work will begin on 45,000 new homes, according to the Sector Report prepared by CESCE, the company responsible for the Integrated Management of Commercial Risk and Credit Services.

This increase represents a turnaround for the construction sector with respect to the previous seven years, which have seen nothing but decreases.

In this sense, CESCE’s analysis predicts that the highest growth will be seen in the renovation and maintenance segment (3.9%), followed by non-residential construction (3.2%), residential construction (2.8%), and finally, by civil engineering, with a rise of 1.8%.

The company states that the production value of the construction sector amounted to €97,972 million in 2014, and that this figure is expected to increase to €100,900 million in 2015.

In total, 58,776 construction permits were granted in 2014, an increase of 0.06% with respect to 2013 – although minute, that rise was significant, as it was the first time the number of permits had increased after seven years of consecutive decreases. Nevertheless, the figure is still a long way below the peaks recorded in 2006, when 911,000 permits were granted in a single year.

According to CESCE, the adjustment in prices has resulted in a prolongation of the good times in the wholesale real estate market, but the improvement has been slow to impact retail sales and even slower to affect the construction market itself.

In 2014, the sale of homes increased by 21.6% YoY, to 365,593 units, with rises reported in all of the autonomous regions, in particular in Ceuta and Melilla, Madrid and Navarra, which recorded annual increases of 44%, 31% and 31%, respectively.

In 2014, the construction of 46,795 new homes was completed, a decrease of 93% since 2007, when 641,419 properties were finished. The figure in 2014 was 28% lower than in 2013, and represented the minimum of the historical series, which was created in 2000.

Nevertheless, the rental market in Spain has been strengthened by the economic crisis, since it has gone from being practically residual to accounting for 20% of Spain’s households (compared with 80% of homes that are occupied by their owners).

This percentage is still a long way below the average rate of rented homes in the rest of Europe (38%) and Germany (60%), although analysis of the data indicates that there has been a structural change in Spain both in terms of the market, as well as in terms of society’s mindset.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake