DEMAND for commercial and residential construction in the Solent region will remain strong for the foreseeable future.

That was the consensus of opinion from members at the last quarterly meeting of Southern Construction and Property Breakfast Club held at the Ageas Hilton Hotel.

Richard Summers, urban designer and director from Southampton based Boyle+Summers Ltd, said that business has been good in 2017 with a number of key new clients bringing interesting projects to the company, most recently a housing project in Cornwall.

He anticipates that 2018 will be similar to this year. That prediction is shared by Justin Galloway, business development manager with Acheson Construction in Chandler’s Ford, who said: “It’s been a busy market thanks to private developments and industrial Investment. We expect business will remain buoyant and are planning new offices and investment with aspirations to grow the business this coming year.”

Recruitment will be important to many of the businesses experiencing this growth in demand.

David Ardley, director of international property and construction consultancy company Gleeds said that the team at their Hedge End had expanded in 2017 and he expects to expand more in 2018.

Nick Groves, Director at Romsey based consulting civil and structural engineers WFBA agrees that 2017 was a good year with growth in their client base and repeat business introducing a multitude of interesting projects.

“Our focus is now including more front end work.

“This means that we are more involved with the feasibility stages, to “free up” sites and help de-risk land purchases and to boost the viability of a development,” he said.

The club, which now attracts over 70 professionals from the building and construction industry to its quarterly meetings held at the Ageas Hilton.