ING economists predict construction sector production will shrink by 2% this year as the housing and office market crises continue to bite. Last year, the sector grew 4%.

Problems in the housing market mean fewer new homes are being built. In addition, companies are not investing in new office or business premises because they either don’t need extra capacity or cannot raise the funding, the ING economists say.
In addition, the market for renovations and maintenance is changing thanks to the development of internet exchanges, the economists said. Last year almost €600m in contracts were awarded through internet exchanges such as Werkspot.nl. This is equivalent to some 5% of the total maintenance and renovations market.