Cooling market? We don’t think so!
By Neil Cooper-Smith, senior analyst at Business Pilot.
Average window and door sales dropped in May by 12%. Leads were down by 14% compared to April, although conversions were marginally up (4%).
Does this point to an easing of retail demand as the economy opens in line with the easing of lockdown restrictions? We don’t think so.
A drop in leads of 14% month-on-month is significant in isolation but the underlying trend points firmly towards growth as it has done throughout the year.
The housing market remains buoyant: the latest government figures show housing transactions in April 2021 reached almost 118,000. That’s 179.5% higher than this time last year.
Property website Zoopla, which claims to have the largest underlying data sample of any UK house price index, said its projections indicated that home sales would reach 1.52 million in 2021 – a rise of 45% on 2020.
If its forecasts are right, it would mean the UK housing market would record its highest level of activity since 2007, making 2021 one of the top 10 busiest years for the housing market since 1959.
With the government calling time on the extension of the Stamp Duty holiday at the end of this month, we don’t see any let up in demand anytime soon and expect June to be another exceptional month. We believe the industry can look forward to sustained demand right the way through to the autumn.
The bigger question is: can it fulfil it? Shortages are impacting the entire construction supply chain. Closer to home, glass, resin, steel and hardware shortages are causing significant disruption to window and door manufacture.
That has potential to delay projects, putting pressure on cashflow, something which we think could lead to casualties, particularly in fabrication but also retail.
That’s going to mean more headaches and more juggling do as a retailer. Business Pilot can help you work through some of these challenges with drag and drop job scheduling. Our management information dashboard also allows you to see your financial performance and pipeline in real time.
Our status progression tool also allows you to see exactly where each job is instantly, allowing you to plan more effectively or adjust for disruption in your supply chain.
It’s something which is helping our customers to plan and manage their cashflow during a period of immense pressure on supply.
