Majority of European architects expect a decreasing turnover in 2020

Rotterdam, March 23, 2020 – The economy is currently under pressure due to the coronavirus that is spreading across the World. Without a doubt, this will affect the construction markets in all European countries. In recent quarters, a slowdown in the top eight European markets has been noticed in the European Architectural Barometer. Currently, we are in the early stages of the corona crisis in Europe, and in many countries, construction projects seem to continue for now. However, it is important to keep track of the expectations of the market to oversee what the challenges that the construction industry is facing are.

By Dirk Hoogenboom
24 Mar 2020
News, Construction,
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Large share of architects in Europe expect a negative development of their turnover due to COVID-19

Almost half of all architectural firms in Europe expect that their turnover will be negatively impacted. In Italy, Poland, Spain and the UK, architects are most worried about their position. But also in other countries the impact of the COVID-19 virus is expected to be felt by a large proportion of architectural firms. Many of them expect a turnover loss, or in the best case a neutral scenario in which the COVID-19 virus will not result in turnover loss already this year.

Percentage of architects expecting a negative turnover impact due to COVID-19 virus - USP Marketing Consultancy 

The weekend of March 13 seemed to be a turning point in the expectations of architects

The previously shared update on the impact of COVID-19 virus on the construction industry was based on figures collected until Friday the 13^th of March. Architects in Italy were already very worried about their turnover in the coming year, possibly due to the measures already taken in the country. The weekend of  March 13 seemed to be a turning point for many of the other countries. This was also the weekend when many governments announced measures to be taken. 

Impact due to COVID-19 virus before and after 13 March - USP Marketing Consultancy

Substantial loss of turnover expected in the majority of countries in the coming 12 months

Also the estimated loss of turnover by all architectural firms has increased since that weekend. The sentiment in general has thus become more negative and shows a worrying image. The average loss in each country is estimated to be a quarter to half of their turnover.  

Estimated turnover loss of all architectural firms per country - USP Marketing Consultancy

Current projects are not cancelled, but first delays in projects can be expected

Until  March 13, it seemed that many construction projects were continuing. The number of architects experiencing direct cancellations or postponements of projects remained fairly stable with previous quarters. The cancelled projects did not rise strongly since March 14, but the number of architects experiencing postponed projects did. This results in a delay of execution of projects.