S$27-34b worth of construction contracts likely to be awarded this year: BCA

THE Building and Construction Authority (BCA) estimates that S$27 billion to S$34 billion worth of construction contracts will be awarded this year.

Some 65 per cent of these contracts are expected to be driven by the public sector, the highest proportion of construction demand from the public sector since 2002, and a reflection of an expected slowdown in construction demand from the private sector this year.

This followed some S$27.2 billion worth of building and construction contracts being awarded in Singapore last year, with public sector projects accounting for slightly more than half of the demand.

The total construction demand last year fell short of BCA's earlier estimates of S$29-36 billion due to the rescheduling of a few major public infrastructure contracts such as MRT projects from the fourth quarter last year to early this year.

BCA said it expects total construction output this year to moderate to between S$32-34 billion this year, partly due to lower construction demand last year, after some S$35 billion (4.7 per cent of gross domestic product) of construction output was generated in 2015.

For the next four years, the average construction demand is expected to be sustained between S$26 billion and S$35 billion per year in 2017-2018, and S$26-37 billion per year in 2019-2020.

BCA projects that public sector construction demand will come in between S$16-20 billion annually from 2017-2020, with 60 per cent of the total demand coming from building projects and the remaining from civil engineering projects.