we receive e we publish the following press release issued by Real Estate Scenarios.
L'real estate services industry in Europe (management, consulting, design, etc.) has grown more than construction over the last ten years: +60 percent, compared to +55 percent. In Italy, the development is more recent, but is recovering quickly, with an increase of 45 percent. In 2023, the turnover of real estate services reached 40 billion euros with an increase of 9,6 percent over the previous year. But the average turnover per employee increased by 26,5 percent, demonstrating that there is ample room for growth. In Italy, the weight of construction and real estate activities in relation to GDP grew further during 2023, reaching and exceeding 19,5 percent, in line with the continental average of 19,4, thanks to an increase of ten basis points in the construction sector and fifty basis points in the real estate sector, consolidating the co-protagonist role played by real estate within the national economy, together with industry and commerce. Since 2015, Italian construction and real estate activities have seen their share increase by 2,5 percentage points, with an increase of more than 3,5 percentage points between 2018 and 2023. This is what emerged today in Milan during the First National Real Estate Services Industry Forum, in which the “Report on the real estate services supply chain in Europe and Italy” was presented, created by Scenari Immobiliari in collaboration with the main service companies.
“The Italian market has demonstrated, and is continuing to demonstrate, a solid capacity for resilience and good stability despite the persistence and succession of ever new geopolitical tensions and conflicts,” he stated. Mario Breglia, President of Scenari Immobiliari at the opening of the Forum. “The real revolution in the real estate sector is the impressive growth of activities serving not only more efficient management, but also planning and sales. The property becomes a place around which the presence of increasingly innovative services is accentuated and technology reigns supreme”.
Unlike the UK, in the main European countries, during 2023 there was an increase, or stabilization in the case of France, in the contribution made by construction and real estate activities to the formation of overall wealth, with the second sector analyzed continuing to contribute to national wealth for a share double that of the contribution provided by construction activities.
Shifting the focus to theemployment trend The construction sector has the largest number of employees, now close to fourteen million workers in Europe, equal to just over 5,5 percent of the total workforce. There are 3,4 million companies active in the sector, with an average size of just under 3,6 employees per company. Germany, with 2,77 million employees distributed across almost 392 thousand companies and an average size of 7,1 employees per company, is once again the largest European market in terms of employment and distances the second, the United Kingdom, by almost 750 thousand units, equal to more than a third of the workforce employed in the UK. In France, the now 1,86 million employees in the construction sector reached in 2023, are the result of a constant growth path (plus 15,5 per center compared to 2015) that returns a level of dynamism, together with Germany, second only to that recorded by Spain (plus 29,2 percent). In Spain, between 2015 and 2023, the number of companies increased by 16,5 percent, from 380 thousand to almost 445 thousand. The number of employed people also increased, growing by 29,2 percent, from 1,07 million to 1,38 million, bringing the average company size from 2,8 employees in 2015 to 3,1 in 2023 (an increase of approximately eleven percent).
THEItaly, with almost 1,54 million employed, up 10,3 percent compared to 2015, distributed across 518 thousand companies (down 5,2 percent compared to the previous year and approximately four percent less than in 2015), is still characterized by small average company sizes, three employees per company in 2023, approaching the Spanish average over the last year.
Il real estate services sector has a lower weight compared to the total workforce of the various countries, with a European average steadily lower than 1,1 percent, corresponding to 2,49 million employees. To these is added a number of "indirect" employees equal to just under 950 thousand units. In Italy, direct employees slightly exceed 285 thousand units (13,3 percent less than in 2022), to which are added just over 120 thousand "indirect" employees. The percentage of the total workforce (1,1 percent) continues to be aligned with the European average, while the average size of companies is still very low, steadily equal to 1,3 employees per company. The sector indicators described above are the result of the combination of the negative trend in the number of companies (approximately twelve percent less between 2015 and 2023), a marked reduction in employed people during 2023 (28 thousand fewer employees) after almost a decade of stability (almost 315 thousand in 2015 and just under 287 thousand in 2023), weight with respect to the overall workforce (1,2 percent on average in the period 2015-2023) and average company size (1,3 employees per company between 2015 and 2023).
“2024 is therefore proving to be a new moment of change for real estate, characterised by growth dynamics and economic fundamentals that are irregular and peculiar to the different markets, with risk levels rapidly decreasing starting from the second half of the year and a realignment with the historical trends of the sector capable of offering greater certainty to operators and investors regarding the expected results”, he underlined. Frances Zirnstein, general manager of Scenari Immobiliari. “The next ten years will be characterized by social and economic changes that are even more extraordinary than the previous decade. Continuous evolution is a characteristic similar to the creativity that has allowed and will allow the constant change in ways of living and relationships. In a constantly changing context, the real estate sector represents one of the fundamental pillars of the global economy, linked to every change in any structural element. The real estate services chain will continue to be a protagonist and to represent the indispensable support for the overall transformation”.
