Europe set to lose out as global construction soars to $15 trillion

But the construction market in western Europe will be almost 5% smaller by 2025 than it was in 2007 at its pre-recession peak.

The study - the third in a series from Global Construction Perspectives and Oxford Economics - forecasts that meteoric growth outpacing global GDP will be concentrated in three countries - China, the USA and India.

World construction markets are at a tipping point already with 52% of all construction activity in emerging markets today. We expect to see this increasing to 63% by 2025, with China and India contributing most to growth in emerging markets,” said Graham Robinson  Global Construction Perspectives executive director.

China overtook the US to become the world’s largest construction market in 2010, and is expected to increase its global share from 18% today to 26% in 2025, despite an expected slowdown.

“China and India will need to build another 270 million new homes by 2025 - mostly affordable homes,”said Mike Betts from Global Construction Perspectives.

The report says that significant opportunities have arisen for a new generation of ‘Asian Tigers’.  Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines represent a US$350bn construction market growing at more than 6% annually. “While China is the key market, it would be a mistake to ignore the transformations happening elsewhere in Asia, which will help boost construction in Asia Pacific,” said Oxford Economics director of industry services Jeremy Leonard.

India will overtake Japan as the third-largest construction market with annual growth averaging 7.4% annually in construction expected to exceed that of China, says the report.

The construction market in Western Europe is expected to be almost 5% smaller in 2025 than in 2007, whilst North America is forecast to be almost 40% larger.

“By 2050, there’ll be two billion additional city dwellers - sustainable urbanisation will be a major construction challenge and the industry must strive to find innovative new products and solutions, to contribute to building better cities,” said Lafarge chairman and chief executive.

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