State of construction post covid

CBear1993

Will our construction industry reach the heights it was at again by the end of the year or sooner ?

Saw a few reports from CIF published in newspapers online that they expect 12 months to recover minimum.

The first few weeks from tomorrow will be slow and a lot of eyes on sites.

A lot of projects that were lined up to go ahead before the lockdown suddenly came in have been shelved by the looks of it. Clients now holding fire and maybe not investing the money. Some main contractors have gone awfully quiet also. Not to mention subcontractors who may not be able to open for business again.

Personally I couldn’t have gotten more rotten luck as I left a main contractor and went out on my own at the start of the year with my father and uncle. We were only really getting firing in March to win our first contract and then this came in. Nightmare. Have been tendering like mad since the lockdown but if work is going to be done for cut throat prices we’d rather stay at home. Could be my first failed entrepreneurial attempt unfortunately.

Then there’s the matter of if jobs will be available like they were. Money was very good in the industry, have heard of a few being let go from main contractors, curious to see if there’ll be wage cuts or will pay scales decrease.

punisher5112

Vulture funds will keep it going... Cherry wood will need to be completed....

I was and still amazed though the block still left fully exposed in sandyford industrial estate and not touched.

CBear1993

Will the vulture funds stay forever though? If Ireland all of a sudden becomes less attractive I'm sure they'd have no problem flocking elsewhere.

ChikiChiki

CBear1993 wrote: »

Will the vulture funds stay forever though? If Ireland all of a sudden becomes less attractive I'm sure they'd have no problem flocking elsewhere.

Think funds will do very well from this crisis in the medium to long term.

CBear1993

Quiet enough around the city sites I've seen on northside dublin this morning.

It'll no doubt take a while to get going again..

CBear1993

The whole thing is f*cked lads

The chan chan man

Im a structural engineer currently busy finishing pre existing work. The new enquiries, apart from public tenders (most of which I don’t believe will materialise anyway) are few and far between so I expect we’ll be very quiet from August/September.

Private developers wont want to take the risk, the banks won’t be overly keen to lend and ultimately with ‘the new norm’ working from home who wants to build offices at the moment.

So that leaves residential work, and a number off housing developers seem to be of the view that a house will cost more to build and will sell for less - so many don’t plan doing much this year from what I can see.

I would have said that Dublin needs quality high rise apartments in the city centre - but with so many taking the view that they’ll work from home in the future, will there be a demand for city Centre living? That question alone will cause developers to ultimately keep the heads below the parapet for some time.

So yes... very quiet times ahead in my view.

CBear1993

Back to the drawing board and start a different career path. Unless anyone fancies jetting off to Oz and new Zealand again like after the Celtic tiger.

I’m hearing a lot about England again as usual. It was a godsend for a lot of Irish contractors and subbies after 2008. With HS2 going full steam ahead over there and London never slowing down it’ll see a lot of the Irish lads on flights again I reckon

double jobbing

CBear1993 wrote: »

The whole thing is f*cked lads

I keep getting texts from one mob for "unskilled labourers" wanted for 14 something an hour, nearly 3.50 below the union rate. Cowboys wouldn't find a man for that in Dublin in normal times but they know lads are desperate now.

I'm working for 1.50 below the union rate, it's not ideal but I'm still getting my 395 p/w from my regular employer so tbh I'm hoping they don't offer me anything until around when the wage subsidy scheme ends as I'm actually taking in more than usual due to this loophole they never considered.

Still though, I'd hate to be stuck on the current rate I'm on long term, or have no job at all. Nervous times.

Wonder how apprenticeship recruiting will be going along?

double jobbing

The chan chan man wrote: »

I would have said that Dublin needs quality high rise apartments in the city centre - but with so many taking the view that they’ll work from home in the future, will there be a demand for city Centre living? That question alone will cause developers to ultimately keep the heads below the parapet for some time.

a- Working from home for most is a disjointed mess, a skeletal service at best. We are not on the cusp of a new life despite what some eejits think

b- The only office workers who want to live in town are foreigners in Google etc. How many Irish people have you ever met that live in Grand Canal Dock and the IFSC?

CBear1993

Yeah very true. It’s all tenders at the minute and who knows if those tenders will even go to site. Any jobs you see going are ones that had begun before Covid and have to be finished. I’m not seeing anything starting fresh

CBear1993

double jobbing wrote: »

I keep getting texts from one mob for "unskilled labourers" wanted for 14 something an hour, nearly 3.50 below the union rate. Cowboys wouldn't find a man for that in Dublin in normal times but they know lads are desperate now.

I'm working for 1.50 below the union rate, it's not ideal but I'm still getting my 395 p/w from my regular employer so tbh I'm hoping they don't offer me anything until around when the wage subsidy scheme ends as I'm actually taking in more than usual due to this loophole they never considered.

Still though, I'd hate to be stuck on the current rate I'm on long term, or have no job at all. Nervous times.

Wonder how apprenticeship recruiting will be going along?

I honestly can’t stand recruitment firms, whether for professionals or trades and labour. They are the sc*m of the earth. The staff that work for them are generally of the same make up but you get the odd good guy just trying to make his commission. Most don’t stay too long in the industry . They treat people like dirt. I refuse to deal with them

CBear1993

looks alright at the minute! things picking up where they were.

Although then you see scaremongering from SISK CEO Steve Bowcott - prob a mantra they want to get going to drive down costs of subcontractors to them but keep the same workload going

https://www.independent.ie/business/irish/construction-sector-will-enter-recession-next-year-sisk-ceo-39294324.html