Construction in Europe to 2003: stabilisation at 2 million housing completions

According to the forecasts of the Ifo Institute and its partners in the EUROCONSTRUCT network, new housing construction in Europe (15 west and 4 east-central European countries) will be the only construction sector to contract in the years 2001 to 2003 (by a total of minus 2.1% vis-à-vis 2000); already in 2002 the sector will fall behind the modernisation and renovation construction sector (at ca. 212 billion euro compared to 215 billion euro). This is caused by unfavourable developments in western Europe (minus 3.0%) and especially in Germany; in east-central Europe new housing construction will show strong increases (plus 35½%). The number of competitions in newly constructed residential buildings will increase in Europe this year to more than 2 million (plus 2½%) and will maintain this high level up to 2003, although, in addition to Germany and the U.K., housing completion numbers will fall in other countries; a counterweight will be Spain and Italy and the central-east European countries. The stock of housing units in the 19 countries will grow to nearly 197 million units. The housing-supply ratio (2000: ca. 110 units per 100 households) will not rise significantly since the number of private households will increase at about the same rate. The housing supply in western Europe is viewed, on average, as good, but in eastern Europe there are still considerable catching-up needs on a quantitative alone.