Recent Developments in the Construction Industry: Financing, Online Purchasing Trends, Architectural Innovations, and Record-breaking Achievements
£10m finance
One of Northern Ireland’s largest housing associations has secured more than £10 million in finance from Ulster Bank to deliver a major programme to build new homes. Habinteg Housing Association, plans to develop hundreds of properties with the bank’s support.
Survey findings
According to the findings of the CMS European Real Estate Deal Point Study 2017, the European property market remains stable despite geopolitical tensions, and a lack of alternative investment opportunities coupled with favourable financing conditions continues to ensure strong demand for real estate investment.
Moving moves online
A survey by Construction Materials Online (CMO), has revealed that construction professionals are changing the way they purchase materials, with 94 per cent now purchase building materials online. Buying online is almost twice as popular as the traditional alternative, with 44 per cent of respondents now saying that it is their preferred choice, while just 24 per cent favour high street and commercial building merchants. As Adrian Saunders – Director of eCommerce CMO noted – ‘the construction industry has firmly entered an era of connection, with technology radically changing the way materials are being sourced’.
Architectural vision
MOL Group has announced its plans to relocate its corporate headquarters by 2021 to MOL Campus, the company’s new 83,000 sqm office, which will be designed by one of the most renowned architectural studios in the world, the UK-based Foster + Partners. The 120-metre high building, which will be the future workspace for up to 2500 employees, will be located on the banks of the Danube in the southern part of Budapest, close to the current HQ building. The modern design mirrors MOL Group’s bold vision of its 2030 strategy to drive changes across CEE over the few next decades. In line with MOL’s vision for 2030, the new campus will feature the highest standards of energy efficiency and sustainability and aims to obtain both LEED and BREEAM qualifications.
Record-breaker
thyssenkrupp Elevator and the city of Rottweil are celebrating a high-flying record-breaker: on 7 October 2017, almost exactly three years after the ground-breaking ceremony, the visitors’ platform at the thyssenkrupp test tower in Rottweil opened to the public for the first time. Located on the top floor of the artfully constructed building, it is Germany’s highest viewing platform. Heinrich Hiesinger, CEO at thyssenkrupp AG, praised the tower as a ‘future laboratory for a new era in lift technology’.