By At £97.6bn (2022) the UK construction sector is by far the largest in Europe and is expected to grow by a further 3.9% this year, having rebounded from the previous pandemic decline seen since 2020.
The figures show that the current market size (revenue based) of the UK construction sector is £97.6bn (2022), with residential construction accounting for the vast majority of this market size (80.8%).
The UK construction sector had enjoyed consistent growth since 2013 when the market size was an estimated £70.1bn, increasing consistently each year to a peak of £108.6bn in 2019.
When the pandemic struck, the UK construction sector retracted by -3.8% initially between 2019 and 2020, reducing by a further -21% between 2020 and 2021 to just £82.5bn – a 24% drop versus its 2019 peak.
However, the UK construction sector has since bounced back, increasing by a notable 18.2% between 2021 and 2022 to its current size of £97.6bn.
This partial return to health places the UK at the top of the European leaderboard in terms of construction sector size, with Germany some way off the pace in second place with an estimated market size of £56.5bn.
What’s more, the sector is expected to see a further 3.9% increase in 2023, pushing it above the £100bn mark for the first time since 2020, to an estimated £101.4bn.
Jason Ferrando, CEO of easyMoney, the peer to peer real estate investment platform responsible for the analysis, comments:
“It’s not just the residential sales market that has enjoyed a period of boom during the pandemic and while the complications posed to the construction sector by Covid have taken longer to overcome, it rebounded at quite an alarming rate in 2022.
This positive growth looks set to continue in 2023, driven largely by residential activity, which bodes very well for the wider health of the UK property market and echoes the growing market sentiment seen across the board since the set back of last September’s shambolic mini budget,
So while we’re yet to see the total size of the construction sector return to its pre-pandemic peak, the likelihood is that this milestone will be made as soon as 2024 as Britain continues to build for future generations.”
| Table shows estimated market size of the UK construction sector and the annual change | ||
| Year | Est total residential and commercial building construction market size (revenue based) £ | Annual Change (%) |
| 2013 | £70,114,200,000 | |
| 2014 | £70,178,500,000 | 0.1% |
| 2015 | £78,329,200,000 | 11.6% |
| 2016 | £89,935,500,000 | 14.8% |
| 2017 | £91,516,400,000 | 1.8% |
| 2018 | £100,052,300,000 | 9.3% |
| 2019 | £108,571,900,000 | 8.5% |
| 2020 | £104,396,000,000 | -3.8% |
| 2021 | £82,510,300,000 | -21.0% |
| 2022 | £97,565,100,000 | 18.2% |
| 2023 est | £101,411,200,000 | 3.9% |
| Table shows the split between residential and commercial sector market size by year | ||
| Year | Residential building construction – est proportion % | Commercial building construction – est proportion % |
| 2013 | 73.9% | 26.1% |
| 2014 | 72.9% | 27.1% |
| 2015 | 75.5% | 24.5% |
| 2016 | 75.6% | 24.4% |
| 2017 | 76.8% | 23.2% |
| 2018 | 77.1% | 22.9% |
| 2019 | 81.7% | 18.3% |
| 2020 | 80.6% | 19.4% |
| 2021 | 80.4% | 19.6% |
| 2022 | 80.8% | 19.2% |
| 2023 est | 81.1% | 18.9% |
| Table shows UK construction market size vs the rest of Europe | |
| Nation | Est residential and non-residential building construction – market size (revenue based) £ bn |
| United Kingdom | £97,565,100,000 |
| Germany | £56,503,991,510 |
| Italy | £46,661,927,670 |
| France | £36,292,610,410 |
| Netherlands | £30,053,444,940 |
| Spain | £29,350,440,380 |
| Sweden | £25,396,039,730 |
| Poland | £22,320,394,780 |
| Belgium | £14,587,344,620 |
| Finland | £14,060,091,200 |
| Austria | £11,687,450,810 |
| Ireland | £8,523,930,290 |
| Czechia | £7,908,801,300 |
| Denmark | £7,469,423,450 |
| Portugal | £7,205,796,740 |
| Romania | £7,030,045,600 |
| Hungary | £5,799,787,620 |
| Slovakia | £2,987,769,380 |
| Bulgaria | £2,284,764,820 |
| Croatia | £2,109,013,680 |
| Estonia | £2,021,138,110 |
| Lithuania | £1,933,262,540 |
| Greece | £1,757,511,400 |
| Luxembourg | £1,757,511,400 |
| Latvia | £1,669,635,830 |
| Cyprus | £1,493,884,690 |
| Slovenia | £1,142,382,410 |
| Malta | £259,320,807 |
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