'We are busy at the moment but there are real concerns': Northern Ireland construction output hits £4.9bn as architects warn of 'frozen' government

Construction output in Northern Ireland hit a new high of £4.9 billion in cash terms in the 2025/26 financial year according to the official figures published yesterday by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA).

When the figures in Northern Ireland Construction Bulletin are adjusted for inflation they still represent a strong performance for the sector in recent years with annual output now close to £1 billion or 26% higher than it was five years ago in 2020/21. Construction output is back to levels

last seen in 2008/09.

In the last year alone output has increased by 4.3%. This has been driven by strong growth in the construction of housing. Private Housing in 2025/26 was up 23% in real terms on 2024/25 and Social Housing was up 38%.

Ciarán Fox, director of the Royal Society of Ulster Architects (RSUA), explained: “The local construction sector has continued to grow over the last 12 months despite the dysfunction of the Northern Ireland Executive.

"Architects are busy at the moment but there are real concerns that this period of almost shadow government and the near absence of decision-making is storing up trouble for future years.

“There’s no budget for the current year, not to mention the three-year one that was heralded; there’s no agreed Investment Strategy, the last one ran out in 2021; there’s no plan to adequately fund the upgrade of our wastewater infrastructure that enables development; there’s no Action Plan for the Housing Supply Strategy a year after it was due; there’s no update to the Building Regulations, which was due three years ago, to decarbonise new buildings and ensure what gets built today won’t need retrofitted in the 2030s. That’s just the start.”

“For the good of the economy, the environment and for housing supply we need a government making decisions not one that is frozen.”