73% Polish construction firms optimistic about future

The latest PMR report has revealed that Polish construction companies are very optimistic about their present situation and future prospects. However, labour shortage is now the key barrier to growth in the Polish construction market.

The report ‘construction sector in Poland 2006 - development forecasts for 2007-2009’ found that around 73% of the firms surveyed operating in Poland were positive about the current market situation in the construction market.

The Anglo-American consulting firm based in Poland said that the report pointed to a much more positive outlook than a year ago when a similar survey found only 38% of surveyed companies had been as positive.

However, when asked about key barriers to doing business in the Polish construction market, nearly two-thirds of respondents pointed towards labour shortages. Interestingly, in the survey conducted in August 2005 this had not been a key barrier.

Senior PMR analyst Szymon Jungiewicz said: “It is highly likely that construction companies will not be able to rapidly increase their production capacity simply because they will not be able to find and hire new employees. In the longer term, the labour shortages may well lead to higher costs and greater subcontractor risk.”

Furthermore, PMR says lack of workers will remain the industry’s key challenge in the next several years; it can be alleviated only if Poland opens its boarders to workers from the east and concurrently pays more to those working in construction.

Respondent’s predictions about the future were, however, optimistic with more than a half of those surveyed expecting things to improve in the next 12 months, with only 7% fearing a downturn.

The research found that Polish construction firms are in very good financial standing with only 3% of respondents providing negative assessments of the current finances of their companies.

Polish construction companies were also very positive about their order portfolios. A steep 85% of respondents provided positive assessments of the current number of orders. More than three-quarters expects the order portfolios to grow further in the upcoming 12 months.