A survey conducted by the ‘RICS Global Construction Monitor’ company showed that almost 12 percent of construction projects involving private residential and non-residential real estate and infrastructure have been permanently canceled since the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic until now in Kuwait, Al Rai daily reported.
The survey also revealed stability in the number of workers in the construction sector in Kuwait, along with Saudi Arabia, while the construction market in the UAE and Oman witnessed a sharp decline in the number of workers. Whereas, on the contrary, the survey stated that Egypt is the only country in which the participating sample indicated an increase in the number of workers.
The construction movement index measures the current and expected conditions of the construction market based on the opinions and expectations of specialists and professionals in the construction sector of the Middle East and African market. In the first quarter of 2021, Kuwait recorded a decline in construction project at a rate of 5 percent, compared to the last quarter of 2020, however, this percentage is much lower than what is recorded in Oman and the UAE, where the rate of decline in construction projects in the two markets during the first quarter of this year was 47 percent and 28 percent, respectively.
While 89 percent of the survey respondents said that the main factors proving troublesome to the sector are financial restrictions, construction companies in Kuwait indicated that the strict government measures in place due to Covid-19 has majorly impacted their business.
On the other hand, participants around the world confirmed in the RICS survey that there are still difficulties in obtaining financing for construction and infrastructure projects.
Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed globally, and more than three-quarters of the respondents in the Middle East, said financial restrictions make it difficult to complete construction projects.
Respondents from the Middle East and Africa said that 7.8 percent of private housing projects have been canceled since the start of the Coronavirus.
The share of non-residential private projects that were not implemented was 8.6 percent, while infrastructure projects accounted for 7.2 percent.
They added that on-site productivity is still expected to decline by 6.7 percent globally due to the coronavirus pandemic.
However, the number is lower than the decline expected in the Q2 2020 survey, when respondents expected an 11.7 percent drop in productivity at construction sites.
RICS Construction and Infrastructure Sector Survey is a quarterly guide that monitors trends in project and infrastructure markets.
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