London, England (Nov. 19, 2019)—Total announced global construction and real estate industry deals for Q3 2019 were worth $61.7 billion, according to GlobalData’s deals database. The value marked an increase of 92.4% over the previous quarter and a rise of 33.2% when compared with the last four-quarter average of $46.68 billion. In terms of number of deals, the sector saw a rise of 10.7% over the last four-quarter average with 654 deals against the average of 591 deals. In value terms, North America led the activity with deals worth $25.26 billion.

New York, New York (Nov. 18, 2019)—New construction starts declined 11% in October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $696.3 billion, according to Dodge Data & Analytics. This is the third consecutive monthly drop in construction starts activity. By major sector, nonresidential building starts fell 20% from September to October and nonbuilding starts dropped 14%, while residential starts moved 2% lower. The October statistics pushed the Dodge Index down to 147 (2000=100) compared to 166 in September.

Washington, D.C. (Nov. 14, 2019)—The Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation has released the November 2019 Monthly Confidence Index for the Equipment Finance Industry (MCI-EFI). Designed to collect leadership data, the index reports a qualitative assessment of both the prevailing business conditions and expectations for the future as reported by key executives from the $900 billion equipment finance sector. Overall, confidence in the equipment finance market is 54.9, an increase from the October index of 51.4.

Dodge predicts construction starts will decline 4% in 2020 to $776 billion. The most notable drops by sector are residential (forecasted to decrease by 6% from 2019) and nonresidential buildings and nonbuilding construction (both forecasted to drop 3%).