Residential pipeline buoying Irish construction sector despite Brexit uncertainty
Mark Kelly
Managing Director, Ireland
Results from our latest Republic of Ireland market intelligence survey indicate a market continuing to warm and remaining competitive despite uncertainty over Brexit.
Rising costs continue to be an issue with the contractors expecting average tender price inflation to reach 6.1 percent in 2019, 5.1 percent in 2020 and 4.5 percent in 2021. Contractors are also reporting tighter margins which have decreased to 3.9 percent in this report.
However, in spite of pressures on margins, a strong residential pipeline is maintaining market confidence with 60.0 percent of surveyed contactors reporting it as their top performing sector.
Despite the unknown instability that Brexit poses, it is a lack of skilled labour that surveyed contractors deem is their biggest challenge. This trend has continued for the past three issues of our bi-annual report.
A healthy outlook
Figures from surveyed firms show that 70 percent of companies’ order books are full for 2019, only falling slightly for 2020/21 period at 63.5 percent.
The positive findings draw a stark comparison with sentiment in the UK, with our most recent UK Market Intelligence report recording a third successive quarterly fall in confidence in Q2 – its lowest level recorded by the quarterly index.
Download the report to read more about these challenges and see the full analysis and insight from the survey.