Construction sector the least optimistic across UK

The Q4 Construction & Infrastructure Market survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and law firm Tughans, indicates that although the amount of private sector housing-building and commercial construction work rose in Q4 2018, falls in activity were reported in areas including public housing, public non-housing and infrastructure.

As a result, Northern Ireland was the only region of the UK where the balance of surveyors reported an overall decline in activity, albeit marginally so, the survey says.

Northern Ireland was also the only region where those polled reported a fall in the number of business enquiries received.

The outlook is also less positive here than in other UK regions when it comes to workloads, employment prospects, and profit margins.

A smaller percentage of surveyors here than elsewhere expect each of these to rise in the 12-months ahead.

“While it is encouraging that surveyors continue to indicate rising activity in some areas of the market, such as private house-building, the picture across other areas, particularly infrastructure, continues to cause concern.,” said RICS N I construction spokesman Jim Sammon.

“The lack of decision-making in government continues to impact on construction activity and on the delivery of important projects.

“Alongside uncertainty relating to Brexit, surveyors cite this as a major challenge for the market and they anticipate that 2019 to be a challenging year,” he added. Tim Kinney, construction partner at Tughans said: “The two-speed nature of Northern Ireland’s construction sector appears to continue, with some private sector activity forging ahead, while surveyors report declines in infrastructure and other publicly-funded workloads”.

“However, it is essential that decisions can be made in relation to major publicly funded projects to ensure that they can proceed and deliver a positive impact for the economy and society,” he adds.

Martin McAuley, policy manager with RICS NI, said: “The fall in public workloads reported by surveyors reflects a continued stasis at Stormont where there appears to be no fresh effort to restore the Executive. As investors give further consideration to private projects in the context of Brexit, markets need more political certainty if the outlook is to improve.”