CJ Construction Blog

There's an air of optimism about at the moment and it isn't entirely down to England triumphantly winning the Ashes.

A near two-thirds jump in housing starts in the second quarter compared to the preceding period offered a welcome surprise start to the main holiday season.

To throw in a bit more bank holiday cheer a growing band of house builders are revealling they are planning to get their chequebooks out to snap up some cheap land in coming weeks. Certainly Bovis Homes and Persimmon are more upbeat than they have been for nearly two years.

Even Irish developer Ballymore, which made its name developing ambitious apartment schemes, is talking to potential backers about restarting stalled projects like its Piccadilly project in Manchester.

So anyone tired of staring into the abyss of expected public spending cuts would do well to take another glance at the house building industry.

Any construction contractor with a bit of cash has a golden opportunity to pick up some good building plots with land prices 70% below the peak. Even struggling trade contractors would do well to revist the bigger name house builders to re-explore the chances off winning some much-needed work.

Of course, it is all too easy to overstate the prospects for housing. After all the entire house building industry is united in warning that the recovery is on a knife-edge with growing unemployment threating to kill off renewed optimism.

Many of the city analysts who made a name talking the market down last year, still argue a 15% drop in house prices is in the offing.

The jury is still out. But Contract Journal for what it's worth believes the market has bottomed out and house building activity is on the rise.

Of course, it all depends on where you are. In much of the country there has been a shift from appartments to houses, which will favour trade contractors over tier 1 firms.

London and the south east will be the first to experience a proper recovery, with the north of Britain struggling on for some time ahead.

But if its growth and a bit of certainty you are looking for, house building is the place to find it. Housing was the first industry to tumble off the cliff. It is cautiously clambering up from the bottom and looks set to be the first out of recession.

Maybe the time has come to dust down that now unfashionable model of running a contracting business alongside a house builder.