This report is the result of WMI’s extensive market, company and deals research covering the construction market in Australia. It provides detailed segmentation of historic and forecast construction sales, segmented to market and category level; analysis of the leading companies in the construction market; and analysis of the key financial deals involving construction players in Australia.
“The Future of Construction in Australia” provides both top-level overview and detailed market and category and company-specific insights into Australia’s construction industry environment. It is an essential tool for companies active across the construction value chain and for new players considering entering the market.
Construction Market Trends
- Construction growth slowed down: The global economic and financial crisis has not affected the Australian construction industry to as great an extent as other major markets such as the US and UK; although growth has slowed considerably. The Australian construction market grew by 12.3% and 12.1% respectively in 2007 and 2008. Australia has avoided recession despite of global financial slowdown and one of the major factors behind this has been the resilience of the Australian labor market. Unemployment remained below 6% (as at November 2009) and has helped build consumers’ confidence to continue spending.
- Residential construction recovery: The Australian residential buildings market witnessed signs of recovery in 2008, with growth of 7.0% on 2007 sales: after four years of relatively weak growth. Consumer confidence has recovered through low interest rates and a boost to the government first home buyer grant.
- Government support: The announcement of major stimulus spending measures in the 2009/10 budget had a positive impact on many areas in the Australian economy. Notably, the schools building package has provided a welcome boost to the construction industry during a time when obtaining finance is proving difficult. The Australian government is set to spend US$16.0 billion on building the education revolution over the next three years.
- Infrastructure, Institutional and Residential to prosper: The infrastructure, institutional and residential construction sectors are expected to perform well compared to the other markets over the period 2009-2014. The residential market is expected to witness compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.1% over the period 2009-2014.
