Construction times for new homes are getting longer and longer. Delivery delays are legion and lead to longer lead times which can extend to several months.
Before the Covid crisis, it took an average of nine months to build a house. Today it is much more.
That’s what happened to Charles and his girlfriend. The couple bought a turnkey house in February, but construction was delayed due to a delivery problem: the frames arrived three months later than expected.
“They couldn’t start inside the house until it was closed with the sashes and windows. The builder told us that it was due to covid and the war in Ukraine so the site was delayed for three months“, says Charles.
“The big difference is that we triggered our mortgage three months later and with the rise in rates that there is for the moment, we took an increase via interest rates for the mortgage“, he regrets.
Delivery delays also affect other materials and are random. For example, the same tile may arrive later depending on the color chosen.
“It really varies from material to material. It ranges from a few weeks to a few months“, Jean-Pierre Libert, director of the economy department of the construction confederation. The expert advises, to reduce the delay time as much as possible, to be flexible in the choice of materials.