Nearly one in three architects (28 per cent) in NSW have reported “going into survival mode” as a result of the global financial crisis, according to new research by BCI Australia.
Victorian architects are the most optimistic with only 9 per cent reporting “survival mode” tactics and one in four firms finding new opportunities in the downturn.
Nationally, one in six (16 per cent) of architects were concerned with the survival of their firm, Australian Construction Market Forecast 2009/10 report found.
Architects in Queensland are seeing the fewest new opportunities, (7 per cent), followed by NSW (17 per cent), WA (21 per cent) and Victoria (22 per cent).
Three out of ten architects (30 per cent) think the downturn is creating new opportunities for them in the smaller states and territories.
Only 39 per cent of the architects surveyed in Victoria say their workload has shrunk. One in five firms even say their workload looks better now than it did a year ago. In contrast, 56 per cent of NSW architects and 67 per cent of Queensland architects say their workload has somewhat or significantly deteriorated over the last 12 months. This corresponds with the death of early design stage projects registered by BCI in these two states.
Not one architect in Western Australia expected a “significant improvement” of their workload over the coming year and only 32 per cent expected “some improvement”.
One in four architects in the Northern Territory, South Australia, Tasmania and ACT expects the brunt of the downturn to only hit them in the months ahead.
BCI notes that responses were taken in July, at a time when consumer and business confidence rose to pre-crisis levels and the RBA announced renewed tightening of monetary policy in early 2010, and so claims that if there were any bias in the report it would point upwards.
