Construction in Singapore - Key Trends and Opportunities to 2022

Synopsis

Singapore’s construction industry suffered a sharp downturn in 2017, contracting by 7.9% in real terms that year, following an average annual growth of 3.4% during the preceding four years. This decline can be attributed to low private sector investment in construction and government measures to curb rising residential property prices.

The country’s construction industry is expected to contract further in real terms, by 2.6% in 2018, before regaining growth momentum. Over the remaining part of the forecast period (2018–2022), however, the industry is expected to recover, mainly due to the government’s focus on the manufacturing industry and energy and utilities infrastructure.

The industry is expected to be supported by improvements in business confidence over the forecast period, which will drive investment in infrastructure, commercial, residential projects and energy infrastructure. The focus on the development of renewable energy infrastructure is expected to drive industry growth. The government aims to generate 25.0% of the country’s total electricity consumption from renewable sources by 2025, compared with 12.6% in 2016. 

The industry’s output value in real terms is expected to post a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 1.79% over the forecast period, compared to 0.52% during the review period (2013-2017).

Summary

Timetric’s Construction in Singapore - Key Trends and Opportunities to 2022 report provides detailed market analysis, information and insights into Singapore’s construction industry, including:

• Singapore’s construction industry's growth prospects by market, project type and construction activity.

• Critical insight into the impact of industry trends and issues, as well as an analysis of key risks and opportunities in Singapore’s construction industry.

• Analysis of the mega-project pipeline, focusing on development stages and participants, in addition to listings of major projects in the pipeline.

Scope

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the construction industry in Singapore. It provides:

• Historical (2013–2017) and forecast (2018–2022) valuations of the construction industry in Singapore, featuring details of key growth drivers.

• Segmentation by sector (commercial, industrial, infrastructure, energy and utilities, institutional and residential) and by sub-sector

• Analysis of the mega-project pipeline, including breakdowns by development stage across all sectors, and projected spending on projects in the existing pipeline. 

• Listings of major projects, in addition to details of leading contractors and consultants

Reasons To Buy

• Identify and evaluate market opportunities using Timetric's standardized valuation and forecasting methodologies.

• Assess market growth potential at a micro-level with over 600 time-series data forecasts.

• Understand the latest industry and market trends.

• Formulate and validate strategy using Timetric's critical and actionable insight.

• Assess business risks, including cost, regulatory and competitive pressures.

• Evaluate competitive risk and success factors.

Key Highlights

• Timetric expects residential construction market will retain its spot as the largest segment, but its market share is expected to decrease, accounting for 26.4% of the industry’s total value in 2022. Youth unemployment, an excess supply of private houses, a weak rental market and declining residential building permits are expected to hinder the forecast period growth of the market.

• The demand for office and retail space in the country is declining due to sharp fall in the rent and leasing rate. According to the Urban Redevelopment Authority, the rental index for office space in the country declined by 8.9%, going from 183.7 in 2015 to 167.5 in 2016. Furthermore, it declined by 6.9% year on year in the first three quarters of 2017.

• In order to support the domestic manufacturing industry, the government is providing subsidies and allowances to domestic manufacturing companies. Accordingly, under the Industry Transformation Program, the government plans to invest SGD6.2 billion (US$4.5 billion) to provide financial support to local manufacturing companies by 2020.

• The total construction project pipeline in Singapore as tracked by the CIC, including all mega projects with a value above US$25 million, stands at SGD240.5 billion (US$184 billion). The pipeline, which includes all projects from pre-planning to execution, is heavily skewed to late stage projects, with only 27% of the pipeline value in the pre-planning and planning stages as of January 2018.

• The infrastructure construction market is expected to continue to expand over the forecast period, driven by public and private sector investments in rail, roads, bridges and highways infrastructure projects. In the 2017 budget, the government increased its investment in transport infrastructure by 5.2%, rising from SGD71.3 billion (US$51.6 billion) in 2016 to SGD75.0 billion (US$54.0 billion) in 2017. The current infrastructure project pipeline has large proportion of late-stage projects, but a major MRT project is in the early stages of development.