With national recovery being said to be led by the construction industry, it is definitely the housing market that is at the front of the recovery train. The Nationwide House Price Index has reported that house prices increased by 0.6% in August and were 3.5% higher than August last year. This brings the typical price of a house to £170,514. Also the Halifax House Price Index has reported that house prices increased by 0.4% in August, meaning that in the last 3 months they were 2.1% higher than the preceding 3 months.

Reflecting the recovery for the housing market some of the bigger house builders have reported large increases in profit. The first to report an  increase, of 40% in pre-tax profits, is Persimmon homes, who announced in their half year results for 2013 that pre-tax profits rose from £96.9 million in 2012 to £135.3 million so far in 2013. Bovis Homes also reported a 19% increase in pre-tax profits, last year they saw a profit of £15.6 million which has risen to £18.6 million. Galliford Try reported "excellent progress as a group in the financial year and delivered a record profit before tax" of £74.1 million.

This new confidence has also been reflected in job vacancies with the UK Job Market Report from Adzuna.co.uk showing that construction vacancies are up 9%.

As the construction industry is finally beginning to look up,  BIS has announced that the industry is set to receive a £150 million boost over the next 5 years. £60 million of this is to be invested through the Technology Strategy Board to support the industry in designing and developing more energy efficient buildings. This is expected to leverage in an additional £60 million of industry investment and £30 million extra funding from across Government and other agencies.
 

As part of its drive to simplify processes the government has completed an external review of the planning system and to clarify the process is to launch an online version of its national planning practice guidance. The beta site is open for comment until 9th October.

Ecobuild have reported some interesting statistics on the Green Deal, reporting the number of signed deals to have topped 100. DECC report that on the back of the core cities and Pioneer Places support there are many LAs developing and preparing to launch their Green Deal offers. How RSLs will improve the energy efficiency of their properties is presented in our research:

The Manufacturer reports that manufacturers of building products must wake up to Building Information Modelling. NBS has published a video showing how to use their system and we have published a video on our BIM research findings. RIBA have also published research into what specifiers want from product manufacturers.

Over the summer Su has facilitated a debate on how architects use the internet, this followed a live blog of an event of the same topic hosted by Honest Buildings. A summary of this debate is provided on Su's blog and also in the recent article in RIBA Insight.

In light of the indications from the debate she got in touch with me to talk about our recent research findings into the communication channels used by Architects. A report of this conversation is given in Su's latest blog article.

Read full article

Our 2013 research into the communication channels used by construction industry professionals has served as the inspiration for this newsletter. In light of this here are some useful links around communicating with specifiers:

Communicating with specifiers:

RIBA has released research into what specifiers want from product manufacturers. The CIMCIG blog provides some useful pointers on communicating with specifiers using the Five Ws and a H! And although an old post we still firmly believe it is vital for the specification salesman to use benefits to demonstrate value.

Deciding your marketing strategy: 

A recent eBook by Prospect Vision presents research which sights 7 marketing habits to stimulate business growth. These include taking advantage of online marketing techniques and integration.

With the rise in social media use at work take a look at some of my recent articles on  the use of social media in construction and building profile through social media. Another beneficial approach given by the Prospect Vision eBook is greater integration between sales and marketing, something covered in our blog creating one awesome sales and marketing team that consistently achieves goals. 

Now is the time to start thinking about your 2014 strategy so why not attend our webinar on deciding your marketing strategy and complete the marketing spend survey to help you decide your 2014 budgets. If you have any questions about how best to communicate with specifiers, or research into the marketplace, I would welcome your call: 01276 503539.

Specification selling:

I will also be repeating my popular one day course Effective Specification Selling on 03 October at the Building Centre in London

For a full listing of forthcoming events visit our website.