Bridging Finance News:-New construction orders fell by 13.3 percent in the second quarter of 2019, according to Office for National Statistics’ data.
This reversed the first quarter’s 10.4 percent increase and the ONS said this was driven by a 17 percent decline in all other work apart from infrastructure. All sectors apart from infrastructure experienced a decrease in comparison with the first quarter of 2019.
The decline in new work was due to a fall in public other work and private housing with decreases of 6.2 percent and 0.5 percent respectively. These were offset by an increase in public new housing of 6.8 percent.
Building output decreased by 0.8 percent in the three months of May to July, driven predominately by a fall in repair and maintenance of 2.2 percent with a slight decline of 0.1 percent in new work.
The fall in repair and maintenance was largely due to a 6.3 percent decline in private housing repair and maintenance. Non-housing repair and maintenance represented a smaller 0.6 percent contribution.
July’s figures offer a glimmer of hope
However, construction output increased by 0.5 percent for July compared with May, thanks to a 0.8 percent increase in new work with growth in repair and maintenance remaining flat.
Bridging Finance by HZA
Brokers Hank Zarihs Associates pointed out that July’s increase, coupled with a 0.3 percent gain in gross domestic product, was a sign the economy would return to growth in the third quarter. The brokerage added commercial development finance lenders were open for business offering competitive construction loans and fast bridging finance.
The monthly survey collects output by sector from businesses in the construction industry within Great Britain. Output is defined as the amount chargeable to customers for building and civil engineering work done in the relevant period, excluding value-added tax and payments to subcontractors.