Research by property maintenance solution provider, Help me Fix, has revealed that the property maintenance trade industry is finally bouncing back after a difficult pandemic period, but still remains a long way from its pre-COVID peak.

The current size of the UK trade market, when combining the estimated revenue of seven major sectors, is £75bn. Leading this strong performance is the electricians sector with a market size of £25.5bn, followed by plumbers (£17bn) and bricklayers (£12bn).

Despite these impressive numbers, they show that the trade market has not yet fully recovered from a big pandemic hit. Overall, the market is still 8.5% down on 2019’s total value of £82bn.

The data suggests that the hardest hit sectors during the pandemic were joinery, still currently down -18.4% compared to 2019, along with bricklaying (-16.1%) and glazing (-16.1%).

However, despite not yet returning to pre-pandemic health, the market is showing signs of recovery and annually, the total value of the market is up 5.1%.

Ettan Bazil, CEO and founder of Help me Fix, said: “Pandemic restrictions were particularly problematic for many trades people, the result of which has been a decline in total market size across the board, with some sectors seeing a far greater level of decline. However, it seems that a slow return to full health is now well underway and this has no doubt been helped by the current property market boom, with a surge of new homeowners helping to boost business.”