Increased activity and strong profits for the building and construction industry indicate that business confidence is on the rebound.
Commercial building has recovered to be at its highest level since the GFC, according to Master Builders Australia’s National Survey of Building and Construction.
“For the second consecutive quarter the Survey shows improvement in the current business conditions of commercial builders while the index measuring expectations of future activity also rose sharply,” Peter Jones, Master Builders chief economist said.
“Driving the recovery is increased confidence in the prospects for commercial construction as the upturn in residential building strengthens and evolves.”
Residential building is still going strong, although the survey showed a slight fall in confidence about where the residential sector is headed reflecting talk of macro-prudential measures to curb investors.
However, Jones warns that buoyant conditions are not being felt uniformly across all states and territories.
“Overall building activity is continuing to rebound on the back of improved confidence and the survey shows improvement in key indicators such as increased display centre traffic and commercial enquiries which leads to increased sales,” he said.
“However the building recovery needs to broaden across all states and territories and supported by key public policy reforms if the transition to non-mining investment heralded by the upturn in commercial building is to be sustained.”
