Spanish construction crisis to last 3 years says Euroconstruct

Spain’s property sector troubles will last at least 3 more years, according to a new report from Euroconstruct, a construction sector forecast group comprised of 19 European research institutes.

Euroconstruct’s latest report on the European construction sector, presented this morning in Barcelona, forecasts that Spain will suffer “a sever adjustment in the residential property market, with output falling 18% in 2008, and 16% in 2009”.

Although the report does not provide a forecast for 2010, Anton M. Checa of IteC, the institute responsible for Spain, explained that “in Spain, after the next 2 years of sever adjustment, activity will continue falling in 2010, but only by 5% to 10%.”

According to Checa “building activity in Spain will not pick up again until the estimated 750,000 to 1 million properties in stock are sold.”

Though it’s problems are the most serious, Spain is not the only European country going through a construction sector downturn. The report forecasts that France, Germany, and the UK will also suffer from falling construction sector output. For Europe as a whole, construction activity is forecast to fall 0.3% in 2008, and grow by just 0.2% in 2009.