The German federation of construction expressed Tuesday in a jump of its business last year, and has been cautious but optimistic for 2012, saying enjoy a renewed enthusiasm for the German real estate safe haven the crisis.
The federation estimated at 9.5% in nominal terms and 6.5% in real growth in sales last year, which has regained its pre-crisis level of 2008, according to a statement.
The business has benefited in particular from a winter 2011 and an exceptionally smooth "unexpected renaissance of residential real estate".
Building on the good economic situation and willing to invest in stone rather than in financial markets in turmoil, the Germans started mass buying homes, reviving a moribund market for years.
"People are afraid of inflation, which pushes them towards real estate," said the federation president Thomas Bauer, at a press conference.
The number of building permits in the big cities (Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Munich), for example, jumped 40% yoy in the first ten months of last year.
The phenomenon "is not that German investors, everything suggests that investors in Southern Europe, who fear a collapse of the euro area, have rediscovered the German real estate," comments the Federation.
The increase in turnover in 2011 was the largest increase since 1994, said the federation, adding that "despite these positive results for 2011, the industry can not ignore the economic risks have increased significantly in 2012".
"Approximately one in three companies expected in December to a deterioration of its business in the first half of 2012," said the federationHowever, it states that the percentage of pessimists has declined steadily since September.
It therefore expects no "dramatic collapse" in activity in 2012, and believes that the activities of housing and construction companies will offset the expected decline in public works projects, inevitable in these times of fiscal restraint.
This year, the German construction industry expects an increase of 2.5% in nominal value of its turnover, and 1% in real.
Faced with the expected decline in public investment in infrastructure, MBauer called for "better link funding to use", that is to say, to involve users, such as via tolls for passenger cars on motorways, which so far remains taboo Germany. |
