Last month we reported some mixed news from the housebuilding industry, this month it is difficult to be that positive. For the last few weeks hardly a day has gone by without the media reporting a bad news story about the construction and housing market.

Smaller to medium sized developers are undoubtedly feeling the pressure and some experts believe that many will face financial meltdown as sales decrease and overpriced land deals combine to force many out of business.

The major players are equally feeling the pain. Bovis, Taylor Wimpey, Barratt and Miller, all agree that current market conditions are the worst they’ve seen for the past decade. Persimmon has announced that they have put the start of new sites on hold until the market improves. The main cause doesn’t appear to be lack of interest from potential buyers, Persimmon described visitor levels in March as ‘encouraging’; the blame seems to lie with the difficulty in obtaining a mortgage.

That said, there maybe a silver lining for some. It was reported recently that Scottish housebuilder Stewart Milne is planning to take advantage of the downturn by aggressively pursing land opportunities in the hopes of acquiring sites at a decent price. No doubt Stewart Milne are hoping to emulate the 1990’s success of Tony Pidgley.

For people looking for a new role this all adds up to a difficult time. Let’s hope that Pidgley is right when he was quoted as saying, ‘This crisis has come so quickly. But then, I think it could go away just as quickly.’ Let’s wait and see what May brings.

We are delighted to announce that our first survey has been a success and we have now completed the report which is enclosed. We welcome your feedback and comments on the conclusions drawn and would like to you remind you that we will be launching our Q2 “Career Development survey” at the end of this month.

If you would like to contribute to it then please contact me andrew@edburydaley.com

Procurement Salary Survey Analysis Report

After the success of our re-branding exercise in 2007, edbury daley has made further investments in our online presence by adding a powerful new tool to our website.
At the beginning of February we will launch an online survey engine which will enable us to take regular market snap shots on the classic key issues such as salary trends, whilst also looking at more topical issues such as new industry initiatives and market confidence levels
Every quarter we will invite over 5000 experienced professionals to contribute. We also expect more to register online and take part so they can receive a free copy of the resulting report and analysis.
From such a strong group of industry specialists we expect to produce some very interesting information backed up by excellent data, so please register to take part in the survey by visiting Survey.

Completing the survey will take no more than 5 minutes