RICS Construction Monitor Q3 2025 – Northern Ireland

• Overall construction workloads fell further into negative territory
• Infrastructure workloads saw the biggest fall in activity through Q3
• Surveyors hesitant on the outlook with workloads and profit margins expected to fall over the next year

Activity in Northern Ireland’s construction market fell for the fifth consecutive quarter according to the latest Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Construction Monitor, and at the fastest decline seen since the latter half of 2023. It appears that economic challenges and geopolitical headwinds are weighing on sentiment in the sector in NI and across the UK.

Overall, a net balance of -18% of NI surveyors reported a fall in construction workloads in Q3, down from the -8% seen in the survey previous.

Looking at the subsectors, all of them saw a decline in activity in the quarter. Net balances of -23% and -24% of respondents reported falls in public and private housebuilding activity respectively, a net balance of -18% of respondents reported a decline in private commercial activity, a net balance of -7% noted a fall in private industrial activity and when it came to other public works, a net balance of -13% of respondents indicated that this had fallen.

Infrastructure activity however saw the largest decline in activity with a net balance of -42% of NI respondents noting a fall, which is the lowest this balance has been since 2020.

With workloads falling, NI surveyors are hesitant about the outlook. Respondents in NI expect that workloads will fall over the next year with a net balance of -5% expecting a decline, down from the 8% seen in Q2.

Surveyors in NI also expect profit margins to remain squeezed with a net balance of -16% of respondents anticipating profit margins to fall in the next year.

Surveyors in NI also continue to report shortages in skills, though at a marginally lower rate. 44% of surveyors report a shortage of bricklayers (the same balance that was reported in Q2), and 48% report a shortage of quantity surveyors, down from the 52% that was noted in the survey previous. However, the shortage of construction professionals seems to have stretched with 48% of NI respondents reporting shortages, up from the 33% in Q2.

Jim Sammon, RICS NI Construction Spokesman, said: “The construction sector in Northern Ireland is facing some very challenging market conditions, and this is evident from these survey results. Construction activity overall in NI faced a downturn and whilst momentum across the UK is also subdued, NI is falling further behind counterpart regions across the UK.  The fall in infrastructure workloads this quarter is of particular concern given that public sector activity plays such a vital role in NI’s construction market.

“The construction industry is continuing to navigate many challenges including skills shortages, ongoing high costs, and other economic issues which will continue to be felt as we go into the final quarter of the year. There are also wider economic challenges and geopolitical headwinds weighing on sentiment in NI and elsewhere.”