Investors want faster and cheaper builds, survey says

Property developers and investors want developments built faster and cheaper, according to Arch-Vision’s second quarter 2013 European Architectural Barometer report.

The quarterly report, which surveys more than 1,600 architects in eight European countries, shows that limited financial resources and the desire for faster exploitation of buildings are challenges the whole value chain will have to take into consideration.

Only the German and the Belgium construction sectors have seen improvement, while the rest of Europe has difficulties in catching up in terms of building volumes.

For architects in countries such as Spain, Italy and the Netherlands, reaching pre-crisis building volumes is impossible. For the UK, France and Poland, architects expect it will take between one and five years.

In seven of the eight countries surveyed by Arch-Vision, the demand for cheaper buildings is already taking place. In Italy, just one third of those surveyed thought it was currently happening, while 41% expected this to be the trend in the coming one to three years.

The pressure from the market requires rethinking of the whole construction process and identification of areas where money and time can be saved, said Arch-Vision. Working more efficiently, with fewer but regular partners, delivering more prefab and total solutions instead of separate products seem to be some of the ways to answer the market demands, it said.