The latest Property and Built Environment Directors' Economic Confidence Index (PBE DECI) survey from the Institute of Directors Property and Built Environment Group shows a very pessimistic industry indeed.
Key highlights:
😥 Overall sentiment up only slightly to -64 in Aug, from a crater of -78 in July
🚧 Construction sub-sector in the doldrums, drops to -77 (from -75 in July)
🏢 Real estate sub-sector a little more positive at -39 (from -83 in July)
The recovery we saw in the PBE DECI in May was a short-lived blip peaking at -24, and it has steadily declined since, cratering to -78 in July, before recovering slightly to -64 in August, says the IoD Property and Built Environment Group.
These figures, gathered from among Institute of Directors (IoD) members in the construction and real estate sectors, track similarly to the IoD’s overall Directors’ Economic Confidence Index, which plummeted to -72 in July before rising slightly to -61 in August.
The construction and real estate camps shared similar opinions in May-July, but this month’s detailed data show a sharp divergence of sentiment, with construction directors dramatically more pessimistic, dropping to -77 (down from -75 in July), while real estate directors’ feelings improved to -39 (up from -83 in July).
We remain in negative territory, where we have been for the last year or so, despite an optimistic upward trend last spring.
Read and download the PBE DECI August report here, or click the thumbnails below.
With PBE contributing 24% of Great Britain's GVA and representing about 12% of total employment, it's important that we get this sector into positive territory. (See the latest report 'The Built Environment Sector' from our collaborators at NLA.)
