"A State Pact for Housing is necessary and urgent to address the shortage of affordable flats"

The Grande Vía venue at Fira de Barcelona is preparing to become this week the largest and most transversal showcase for the construction industry. In its 24th edition, Construmat aims to become an exhibition space for disruptive construction solutions, but also an epicenter for debate and reflection. A space to address the present and future challenges of the construction industry, such as sustainability or the scarcity of affordable housing, with over a hundred national and international speakers.

The show also aims to exceed 22,000 visitors in an edition that grows in international representation. Of the more than 350 companies present at the fair, 35% come from outside Spain, mainly from European Union countries, but also from China, Morocco, Egypt, Japan, the United States, and Turkey, which this year is the guest country of the show. All in all, in this edition, Construmat increases the number of participating companies by 24% and the occupied exhibition area by 15%, with 32,000 square meters.

--- In its 24th edition, Construmat continues to grow in both the number of companies and exhibition space. Is this growth also a reflection of the growth of the construction sector?

--- The need to build more homes, but also offices and infrastructure, is growing. Furthermore, the construction sector has evolved a lot in recent years, and companies that innovate and commit to offering new construction solutions have proliferated. Construmat is a reflection of this transformation and evolution of the sector, and, for this reason, every year we increase in quantity and quality of exhibitors. In this edition, we have exhausted the planned exhibition space and have grown in the number and variety of brands.

--- And, in addition, in this edition, the internationality of the show also continues to grow.

--- This year, the show increases the number of visitors and international exhibitors, as well as the number of countries represented, which already exceed twenty. These are very good indicators, because they show us that we have managed to become the benchmark show for the sector in Southern Europe. This was one of the objectives we set ourselves three years ago, when, after the pandemic, we decided to rethink the show and promote it. And we have achieved it with a lot of effort, but also by involving all subsectors of the industry, with installers, professionals, colleges, technicians, associations, institutions...

--- What new features will be shown during the show?

---The show is not a fair for selling construction materials, but rather aims to be a showcase for the most innovative construction solutions, with a focus on values such as sustainability, energy efficiency, digitalization, and industrialized construction. In the end, Construmat is a representation of all the novelties that are brewing within the sector and that need to be shown and demonstrated to developers, builders, engineers, architects... On the other hand, the Sustainable Building Congress will serve as a space for national and international speakers to share their experience and address the current challenges of the sector.

"The average time to carry out a new project is between 10 and 15 years, a period that does not correspond to the current need"

--- The sector has innovated a lot in recent years, but it needs to continue doing so, and startups are the basis of this innovation. Without these emerging companies, which devise disruptive solutions, new ways of building, or of being more efficient in production and construction, would not appear. If the number of startups increases at the fair, it is because the sector still has this need to innovate and evolve.

--- What are the main challenges for the sector currently?

--- There is a significant housing deficit, because construction is far below existing demand. In Catalonia, we are around 14,000 new homes per year, but we would have to build at least 25,000 to satisfy demand. At the state level, we are around 100,000 homes built each year, but, according to calculations by the Bank of Spain, 220,000 homes per year should be reached. However, we are optimistic because the sector is prepared to reach these levels, but we need the support of the administrations.

"Generational replacement is starting to be an urgency; it is estimated that 40% of construction workers will be of retirement age in 15 or 20 years"

--- This is a consensual decalogue, prepared by the Association of Construction Promoters of Spain (APCEspaña), the National Confederation of Construction (CNC), the Superior Council of Colleges of Architects of Spain (CSCAE), and the General Council of Technical Architecture of Spain (CGATE). In this document, we focus on different aspects to advance towards the construction of more affordable housing, because the solution to this problem must be transversal.

--- What role do administrations have to play in solving this problem?

--- The elaboration of a State Pact for Housing is necessary and urgent to address the shortage of affordable flats. But other actions must also be undertaken, such as accelerating administrative processes, since the average time to carry out a new project is between 10 and 15 years, a period that does not correspond to the current need. More financing is also needed, through the Official Credit Institute (ICO) or the Institut Català de Finances (ICF), or making public land available.

"Industrialization is also favoring the incorporation of female labor into the construction sector"

-- We must continue innovating and committing to industrialization and process optimization, but we also need to incorporate labor and know how to explain construction as an attractive professional option for young people, especially considering the current youth unemployment rate. Generational replacement is starting to be an urgency in the sector, as it is estimated that 40% of construction workers will be of retirement age within 15 or 20 years.

--- How to present construction as an attractive professional option for young people?

--- There is still the conception of how construction was done 30 or 40 years ago, but the sector has evolved a lot lately: digitalization has revolutionized this trade, and it is no longer that sacrificed, hard, and manual profession... During the fair, we will hold workshops so that students can observe firsthand how construction is currently done, what the practices are, but we will also explain that salaries are above the average of other professions.

"The innovative construction solutions presented at Construmat pursue the objective that housing can be affordable but, at the same time, sustainable and healthy"

--- Pedagogy must be done and it must be explained that there are many areas where one can join, and that, furthermore, manual labor is no longer so demanding or involves carrying heavy weights. Industrialization is also favoring the incorporation of female labor.

--- How are new technologies being incorporated into the construction industry?

--- Processes are being optimized, avoiding duplicate tasks… For example, the system called Building Information Modeling (BIM) is applied for the centralized and digital management of a project. In addition, as in many other sectors, artificial intelligence is also applied in construction. All these technologies must serve to build more, but also better, more efficiently and sustainably, without this increasing the price of housing. Precisely, the innovative construction solutions presented at Construmat pursue the objective that housing can be affordable but, at the same time, sustainable and healthy.

--- What does it mean for a home to be healthy?

--- Depending on how a home or office is designed, with what materials it is built, how it is oriented… it can bring benefits to people's physical and psychological health, and this will also be another of the topics that will be addressed during the Sustainable Building Congress.

--- Despite all these challenges, how do you approach the future of construction?

--- With optimism. We have room for improvement to continue working on incorporating new technologies, but without losing the manual part of the trade. Construmat is a showcase of these two aspects of construction, an exhibition of the most disruptive technologies, but also of traditional craftsmanship.

--- And the future of Construmat?

--- The goal is to continue growing. In fact, we have achieved figures that will force us to make the following editions biennial. But it is true that we do not want to grow excessively, we do not want to increase the number of companies only numerically, but we want to do it with quality, adding value through all exhibitors to consolidate ourselves as the benchmark exhibition in the sector.