Education and housing to drive construction in Wales

If the trends of 2019 are anything to go by, the housing and education subsectors of the wider construction industry will be key areas of growth within Wales over the course of the coming 2020 year, according to construction market research by Glenigan.

Drawing upon examples from the area of education construction in Wales, Glenigan pointed out that the University of Cardiff appointed the contractor company ISG to a £34M contract to extend the university campus, with the company likewise being awarded a £20M school extension contract in Barry and a £22M contract to build an extension to Bridgend College.

Taking a sideways glance at the construction of housing in Wales, this is likewise expected to increase as a result of the growth that was visible throughout 2019, with the underlying value of housing starts in Wales having increased by a proportion of 36 per cent over the course of the year.

Another example of a housing project in Wales, as evidence of this projected growth, is the Persimmon’s Garden Village development of 750 homes in Swansea as well as the £20M scheme to deliver 139 houses and five flats in Swansea by the property development company Coastal Housing, which is actually due to start on site this year.

Blending these two subsectors together, the more niche area of student housing has similarly proven itself to be a fruitful band of the construction industry in Wales, with some notable projects including the £65M project to deliver a 780 unit student accommodation building in Swansea.

This project was, again, appointed to ISG by the student accommodation development company Fusion, and serves as further evidence that ISG was listed as the most successful contractor company in Wales in 2019, followed by Kier, Tarmac, Morgan Sindall, and Willmott Dixon respectively.

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