Improving European market conditions

Improving European market conditions and optimism for the future were the views shared by Europe-based rental companies, according to the first quarter ERA/IRN RentalTracker.

A record balance of opinion was recorded for current market conditions, at 60%, meaning respondents opted for answering ‘improved’, rather than ‘stable’ or ‘deteriorating’ to the survey questions. This compared with 50% in the comparable 2016 survey.

The balance figure recorded for each question in the ERA/IRN RentalTracker – which is jointly organised by IRN and the European Rental Association (ERA) – is the percentage of positive responses minus the percentage of negative responses.

Most notably, 100% of respondents in Spain said they believed market conditions were improving. However, in relative terms, the market in Spain is on the up, following a crash amid the economic downturn, which took the country longer to see a recovery than many other countries in Europe.

Following Spain came France, with 75% of respondents saying that market conditions were improving, while just over 55% of Russian respondents said the same.

There was also a record balance of respondents saying that conditions had improved since the first quarter of 2016, at 54.7%, compared to the first quarter survey a year ago, which saw only 15.2% of respondents share these views.

Again in France, 75% of respondents said this was the case while, while 70% of English respondents agreed.

Looking ahead to the next 12 months, an overall balance of 57.4% of respondents said that they expected market conditions to be better in the first quarter of 2018. In Spain, that figure was 83.3%, while 77% of English respondents felt the market would improve over the next year.

For the full 2017 first quarter ERA/IRN RentalTracker results, download the May issue of International Rental News (IRN) at www.khl.com