DIP partner Aengevelt Immobilien reports that new orders in April fell by 29.5% in commercial and industrial building construction and by 32.3% in public building construction compared to the previous month. Since new orders are the most reliable leading indicator of construction activity, a corresponding decline in completions of commercial and industrial real estate is therefore to be expected in one and a half to two years.
At the end of June 2026, the Federal Statistical Office reported that new orders in the main construction industry in April remained unchanged from the previous month. According to analyses by Aengevelt Research, however, this is exclusively due to the fact that new orders in civil engineering rose by 6.5% due to the Federal Government’s infrastructure package, which is gradually taking effect, while new orders fell in most segments of building construction.
In residential construction , new orders increased by 8.9% to EUR 1.882 billion in April 2026 compared with April 2025. However, the contracted volume corresponds to a decline of 8.5% compared to the previous month, so that the slight upswing in residential construction is already threatening to lose momentum again.
On the other hand, there were downright slumps in commercial and industrial building construction as well as in building construction for public corporations:
- New orders for commercial buildings of EUR 1.750 billion correspond to a decrease of 29.5% compared to March 2026 and 13.6% compared to April 2025.
- In the case of building construction for public corporations , there was even a reduction of 32.3% to 579 million euros compared to the previous month.
- Only building construction for non-profit organisations recorded a slight increase (+1.2% to 645 million euros).
Dr. Wulff Aengevelt, Managing Partner of DIP partner Aengevelt Immobilien: “The complex economic upheavals due to the Iran war and the continuing weakening economy have led to planned construction contracts being postponed or even cancelled altogether. In commercial building construction in particular, capacity expansions are currently being refrained from in many cases. But the public sector is also suffering so badly from budget bottlenecks that public building construction is losing its stabilising effect. The current declines in incoming orders in the main construction industry will be reflected in declining completion and transaction figures in one and a half to two years.”
