Saudi Arabia 'building on strength', says study

The Insights study by research house Proleads Global provides statistics to back anecdotal evidence that the Kingdom's construction industry has not been so severely impacted by the global slowdown.

Insights Saudi Arabia: An Investigation into the Current and Future State of the Civil Building Construction Industry examines more than 720 projects with a total budget of more than $430bn across commercial and retail; education and healthcare; leisure and entertainment; and residential sectors.

The study finds cashflow in the Saudi Arabian industry grew throughout 2008 and stabilised in 2009.

Emil Rademeyer, Director of Proleads Global, said:

"The market in Saudi Arabia is expected to maintain current levels throughout 2010, although slight decline is expected in the education and healthcare sectors countered with an expected slight growth in commercial and retail."

Despite the global slowdown, Saudi Arabia is one of the most active construction markets in the world as it grows its infrastructure to meet domestic demands with more than 350 of the active projects in construction.

"The economic crisis has not had a great effect on the rate at which projects have been cancelled in Saudi Arabia," said Rademeyer. "Our cashflow projections show the Saudi Arabian industry will continue building from a position of strength well into 2010, whereas other Arabian Gulf markets continue to seek stability," he added.

Less than 80 active projects, with a total value of around $20bn were placed on hold or cancelled in Saudi Arabia. This is in marked contrast with the smaller United Arab Emirates where a similar study recently by Proleads Global found 400 cancelled or on hold projects valued at more than $300bn.

Further results of the most detailed study of its type of the Saudi Arabian construction market, include:
• Residential makes up the biggest share of the market in terms of value but education and healthcare has the most projects.
• 2011 is set to see significant project completions.
• In all sectors, projects in the study, planned, design and bidding phases make up a significant proportion of number of projects and budgets.
• Risk in the market is tightly linked to relatively few projects with 2% of projects making up 43% of the total budget.

Rademeyer said the aim of the study is to quantify the civil construction market as accurately as possible, rather than rely simply on anecdotal evidence.

"It is vital to know how fast and by how much an industry is changing, not just for the industry and its suppliers but also for planners, governments and financial institutions," he added.