2023-05-14 04:00:39
Pressured by inflation that does not faint (in April prices in the region stood at 4%, one tenth less than the national average) and that acts like a moth on savings, Asturians are being selective when it comes to making the reforms necessary for their daily life. The feelings of the automobile and construction employers indicate that, broadly speaking, citizens are cutting back on the most aesthetic and superficial repairs to their cars, but not on the rehabilitation of the interior of their homes or on the installation of infrastructures household basics.
“Luckily, we still have a lot of work to do, but it is true that there are certain repairs that have decreased in recent months, such as replacing wheels, bodywork, specific repairs or general vehicle maintenance,” says Manuel Fernández Antuña, vice president of the Principality of Asturias Automobile Association (Aspa), which brings together the majority of the thousand workshops in the region. Fernández adds that these establishments have been up to their necks in water for more than a year, since their main energy costs (electricity, gas and oil) “have risen by 300% on average” and, nevertheless, “insurers, which are the intermediaries of more than 80% of the clients, do not pay the price per hour agreed in the rates of the mechanics”. This is the reason why Aspa, together with the large national associations of the sector, have raised this complaint with the European Commission.
For their part, construction companies and masonry and reform companies are not particularly noticing the blow of inflation in the decline in housing works. And that in the last year, especially after the start of the war in Ukraine, many of the construction materials have suffered a sharp rise in costs. Thus, last year they grew by 12.8%, according to the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda. This is the biggest rise since the Ministry began collecting data in 2005. The costs of lime and plaster stood out, 40% higher than in 2021.
“It is difficult to measure the behavior of the construction sector in the short term, and it is true that we have been chaining price increases for several months, but my impression is that in Asturias our activity is at a very stable moment, I would almost say sweet, creating jobs “, says Joel García, president of the CAC-Asprocon employers’ association. “I have not noticed that the rehabilitation works are being particularly paralyzed,” he says.
Obviously, there are cases in which the vertiginous increase in prices forces some projects to be kept in the bedroom. This has happened to Andrés Fernández from Oviedo, who in 2020 began the procedures to acquire a farm in Llampaxuga (Oviedo), with the aim of building a house. “In 2020 they gave me a budget of between 1,000 and 1,500 per square meter. Unfortunately, the procedures to acquire the land took too long and, when the war broke out in Ukraine, now a classic brick construction ranges between 2,000 and 2,500 per square meter,” he explains. “In prefabricated concrete houses, the cheapest at the moment is around 1,750 euros,” he points out.
Luis Nevares, president of the Association of Air Conditioning, Plumbing, Heating, Sanitation and Related Entrepreneurs of Asturias (Afoncasa), affirms that the work of his sector “is not being delayed at all, because it is very necessary in the day-to-day people”. However, Nevares admits that his activity is “in a complicated environment”, since “inflation, delivery times for manufactured products and the lack of qualified professionals make daily efforts enormous.” “Sometimes we suffer rate increases in work in progress, with which we are severely affected and on other occasions we have to go to a price review before starting work,” he explains.
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