Ifo Architects Survey: Business Climate Cools Down Slightly

The business climate cooled down at the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2016, but remains exceptionally favourable, according to the Ifo Institute’s quarterly survey of freelance architects. After improving for five successive quarters, in some cases significantly, a slight clouding over is almost overdue. As far as their six-month business outlook is concerned, judgments were more cautious than in both of the preceding quarters. Accordingly, in the reporting quarter only one in seven architects expects the order situation to be fairly favourable in six months from now. The share of freelance architects that signed new contracts over the course of the third quarter of 2016, was only marginally below last month’s figure at 56%. The average estimated construction volume from newly-signed contracts was only slightly above last month’s figure across all Länder in the third quarter 2016. Residential construction volumes were around 3% lower than last quarter and roughly 6% higher in non-residential construction.