Foreword
Resilience is becoming the key differentiator for the construction industry
2025 brings real potential
Inflation is stabilising and global economic growth is steadily improving. But there is still a great deal of uncertainty, driven by a multitude of factors. The real challenge is to predict what might happen next and build an in-depth understanding of potential consequences for current and future projects, including cost implications, schedule delays, feasibility, and growth opportunities.
Just last year, in our report, How to navigate 2024: Balancing challenge with opportunity, I posed the question: "what can we do now to address cost drivers and create greater cost certainty in the future?” While the specific challenges may have evolved, the core issues remain the same. We must prioritise building resilience and prepare to absorb shocks when, not if, they come.
How can we build resilience?
There will be no one-size-fits all answer, but it will involve a willingness to think differently. It will demand a fresh approach to the ways we view and use data and technology. It will require us to work together, across the project team, taking the time to analyse and account for known risks and uncertainties, and build in contingency for those that cannot be predicted. As an industry, we need to be more agile, investing and adapting to take advantage of opportunity when it arises.
In this report we bring together our analysis of global construction costs over the coming year. We’ve also addressed the factors that are shaping our industry and how we face them head on to build better, more sustainable built environments for all.
I hope you find our analysis helpful when considering your project plans for 2025 and beyond. For more insight and a discussion of what building resilience might look like for you, please get in touch.
Alan Manuel Group Chief Executive Officer Currie & Brown