New Study by Arch-Vision Finds Positive Outlook On European Construction

• Press Release
• Source: Arch-Vision
• On 8:41 am EST, Monday November 9, 2009

ROTTERDAM, The Netherlands--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The economic crisis is loosening its grip on European architects in the third quarter of 2009, as the majority of architects report a less negative development of their order backlogs by annual comparison.

The construction industry operates in a late cyclical market, which means that buildings designed today will not be ready until at least two years from now. Therefore, activities of architecture firms provide a strong indicator of how the construction sector will develop. In Germany, both the development of the present order portfolio and the turnover expectations among architects are positive. In the UK, future expectations are also positive. This is one of the findings that have emerged from the European Architectural Barometer, a research project commissioned four times a year by Arch-Vision among architects in Spain, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Germany and the UK.

Improvement of backlog in UK and France
In annual comparison, the European architects‘ order backlogs are still negative in all regarded countries apart from Germany. In Germany more architects report an increase than a decrease from the third quarter of 2008 to the third quarter of 2009, resulting in the only positive index among all participating countries. The second best result has been achieved by their colleagues from the UK reporting of a marginal backlog decrease in annual comparison only.

Compared to the results from the previous quarter, architects in the UK and France have experienced a much smaller decrease in backlog. Although the present German result is still positive, the annual backlog development in the third quarter 2009 is slightly less positive than it was in the second quarter.

Increased confidence in Germany and the United Kingdom
Architects from the UK and Germany are the most confident regarding the turnover development during the next twelve months: Like in the second quarter, their expectations are once again positive. In comparison to their expectations in the previous quarter, their present expectations have risen by more than ten index points in both countries.

In all other countries, the architects‘ turnover expectations are still negative, but visibly less negative than they were in the previous quarter. In France, Italy and the Netherlands especially, architects only reckon with comparably small turnover losses in the 12 months to come.

For full research information, including graphs and tables, visit: http://www.arch-vision.eu/persberichten/pb_arch-vision_09112009.pdf

Arch-Vision
Marjet Rutten
+31-(0)10-2066916
rutten@arch-vision.eu