UK residential construction has lost £20.7 billion during pandemic

The latest research from Warwick Estates, reveals that the market value of the UK’s residential construction industry has declined by -23% since the start of the pandemic.

In 2016, the UK residential construction industry had a market value of £66 billion after five years of steady growth. By 2017, value had increased by a further 3.2% to £68.1 billion. Growth continued through 2018 (9.7%) and 2019 (7.6%) before declining by -3.6% in 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold of the world, leaving a total market value of £77.5 billion.

Then, between 2020 and 2021, as many other industries have started to show signs of recovery, residential construction’s market value was slashed by another -£17.8 billion, plummeting -23% to a total of £59.7 billion.

This means that, so far, the pandemic has reduced the market value of residential construction by 25.7%, the equivalent of -£20.7 billion. As for the five-year change, the industry is down -9.5%, or -£6.3 billion.COO of Warwick Estates, Bethan Griffiths, commented: “Much like many areas of life, the pandemic proved problematic for the residential construction industry with a national lockdown causing the sector to grind to a halt. When it did reopen, the need to pivot in order to abide by COVID-19 protocols also slowed the rate at which new homes could be delivered.

“However, we’ve seen a monumental effort since the final quarter of last year and while the spread of Omicron threatens to present yet further complications, we can remain confident that this pandemic inspired dip in market value won’t be a trend that persists in the long term.”