The crisis generated by the pandemic of COVID-19 surprised the construction sector which had finally found a point of balance. The effect, even if considerable, will not have as much impact as that of the crisis of 2008.

At the end of 2019, the construction sector was in a stable position. Demand had been steady for several quarters which showed that the sector was experiencing good health.
The COVID-19 crisis surprised the sector right at the time of this stability. According to the real estate consultants, Forcadell, the new homes sector will assimilate the current situation faster than the one generated in the 2008 crisis. This is partly because the stock of new housing in Spain currently is much less. Sales are based on apartments built and not on those already constructed meaning that the effects of the coronavirus on the construction sector will be much lighter.
This situation is quite the opposite of that of 2008, when the crisis surprised the sector with an enormous housing stock, which paralyzed the sector and would take several years for activity to resume.
In order to get back to normality, in this new situation, the first thing to happen should be to win back consumer trust. For this, employment levels must recover so that families once again have the capability to take on debt. On the other hand, liquidity needs to put back into businesses to reactivate economic activity. The real estate consultants, Cushman & Wakefield, assure that there will be a worldwide recession in 2020, but this will be followed by a much faster recovery than in 2008.
Another aspect to take into account is that build to rent, the formula which promotes building houses to rent them, is being implementing in the construction sector implying that it has more response capacity and can recover from setbacks such as that of the coronavirus.