Large building projects may need to find alternative funding

Alternative funding mechanisms — such as equity finance and institutional investor pre-funding — could be needed to boost large-scale building projects in the short-to-medium term, the Construction Industry Federation has said.

Addressing delegates at the CIF’s s annual conference in Dublin yesterday, president Philip Crampton said that while the construction sector is “on the cusp” of growth again, a claim backed by recent positive activity and employment data, the banks aren’t providing development finance.

“It is quite telling that the only serious player providing development finance for large- and medium-scale building projects, at the moment, is Nama. This shows the banking system is still far from fixed.