CEO foreword
Dr Alan Manuel
Group Chief Executive Officer
Currie & Brown
Every organisation is operating in an environment that is changing rapidly. But construction cannot stand still. The assets we plan, build and operate underpin growth, public services and everyday life.
The challenge is that conditions around construction decisions are becoming harder to read. Costs move quickly. Supply chains are vulnerable. Skills are scarce. Technology is changing what we build and how we build it.
In conversations with clients and colleagues around the world, I hear the same concerns: the ambition to build is still there, but delivering projects is becoming harder.
On top of the more predictable challenges, like inflation and labour shortages, market shocks seem to be hitting with increasing regularity. That is what makes today’s uncertainty so difficult to manage. We can’t assume that the next disruption will look like the last. Volatility is becoming broader, faster and harder to predict.
The Construction Certainty Index is our annual global benchmark of delivery confidence, supported this year by research with over 1,300 senior construction decision-makers across the world.
The findings are sobering. Uncertainty has added more than 12% to construction pipeline costs over the last year. Applied to forecast global construction spending, that equates to almost US$2tn in 2026.1 This is cost being absorbed by the market now.
The Index shows where confidence is being lost. Worryingly, delivery certainty is weakest where it matters most: time and budget. The associated research shows only 46% of respondents are confident projects will meet deadlines, and only 40% are confident they will stay within budget. This is a sharp decline compared to 2025: confidence in meeting deadlines has fallen 12 percentage points, while confidence in budget has fallen 14 percentage points.
For a sector built around long-term investment, that is critical. Lower confidence in time and budget affects whether projects are funded, procured and ultimately built.
Last year, in our Building certainty in an era of relentless change report, we argued that construction needed to become more adaptive. This year, the urgency has increased. Adaptability is still essential, but organisations need to be focused and disciplined in how they respond to change.
Organisations that build capability across data, technology, sustainability and skills will be better able to move forward. They can make informed decisions, test options, adapt as conditions change and focus investment where it creates most value.
But organisations are not developing these capabilities to the same extent. That is the capability gap this report explores.
Closing that gap means investing with greater maturity, and delivering with greater certainty.
For leaders, this is now a boardroom issue. The organisations that build certainty into their decisions today will be better placed to protect value, maintain momentum and deliver with confidence tomorrow.