Our survey, completed by 691 business leaders from across the UK, finds continued uncertainty amongst owner managed businesses (OMBs). This view is shared in the real estate and construction sector where, although they are more confident than owner managed businesses overall, their confidence has dropped significantly compared to last year. 61% are confident about the general outlook for 2017, compared to 84% in previous year's survey.
Combined with their lowered optimism, real estate and construction businesses are more likely than OMBs generally to have already experienced some negative impact from the Brexit vote (38% compared to 30% overall). Alongside this, again compared to OMBs in general, RE&C OMBs appear relatively unwilling to commit to specific strategies in 2017, and yet have little reticence about identifying the issues that concern them this year, both from a business and economic perspective.