Construction Tips, News & Best Practices
The Roaring '20s & 10 Construction Industry Trends That Will Shape It
What are the top 5 Construction Industry Trends for 2020?
When you look in time, “The Roaring ‘20s” were not that much different from nowadays: “you worked, and you made a living if you could, and you tried to make the best of things”. “The Roaring ‘20s” was the start of the wave of the future, and somehow we have the feeling that 2020 will also be a turning point in the technological industry - new trends emerging for the Construction and Manufacturing industry. We would like to share with you 10 Construction Industry Trends for the new year to come.
1. Construction Management Software
Technavio has been monitoring the global construction management software market since 2016, and the market is poised to grow by USD 724.88 million during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of almost 9% during the forecast period.
There is a large trend nowadays showing demand increase for project management and construction project management solution. A lot of construction companies search for management software that would help them maintain a regular followup in managing their resources and boosting up their productivity. At this moment, the market is highly fragmented and there are many players occupying the market share.
2. Modular / Prefabricated Construction
Modular and prefabricated constructions are “in” and making waves on the market now. The modular construction market has a projected annual growth rate of 6.9%, being valued at up to $157 billion by 2023.
Modular constructions are extremely popular in countries like Japan, Germany, and Sweden and they are slowly but surely taking off on the UK market as well. Of the 200,000 homes built each year in the UK, about 15,000 are modular, according to a report by law firm Pinsent Masons. In 2019, Japan’s biggest housebuilder (Sekisui) entered a venture with the UK government expected to result in thousands of modular homes across the country. But why use modular/prefabricated construction? The key answer is that it is time, energy and cost-saving! .
Modular constructions are making waves on the market now
3. PM Solutions
Construction Project Management Software is for sure a trend that will be clearly visible in 2020. The number of companies producing their own software has increased throughout the last years and so did the number of companies that are creating such software for the use of the industry. It is clearly fresh ground that people fight over! The best PM Solution for the Construction company you own should let you get things done, help you organize your tasks and team members, store everything in one location (easily accessed by everyone that needs to access it), and help you keep track of the financial health of your Project.
4. Virtual Reality
Virtual Reality (also known as VR) is one of the new technologies that is reconfiguring the face of the construction industry. It is the next level in 3D modeling, allowing the client to enter the virtual environment and immerse himself in the “new world” that can be created.
VR allows you to “see” how your actual project will look, once finished - it allows you to “travel in time and space”, fast forward to the end of the Project and see the final result before even starting the construction. With the help of VR, you can have teams around the globe joining in and seeing what needs to be done and where. Scale 3D models will be a thing of the past, once VR will take over the construction industry. Improving customer experience is also key in the industry, and VR takes it to another level! Instead of having paperwork, blueprints, 3D models… clients can actually walk in the house you are building for them!
5. Rising material costs & labor shortages
Not all the 2020 trends are positive - this particular one does not bring a smile on anyone’s face. It is a trend for 2019 and it will be a recurring one in the years to come - 2020 included. The construction industry faces an increase in construction costs year after year; the profit margins are smaller and smaller and people are not happy (as one would imagine).
Last year alone, in 2018, construction pricing has increased by 5.07% (vs the year 2017). The labor shortage had been the major challenge for contractors and developers, but recently, increased materials cost has been an equal burden. “In 2018, material costs increased 10% over the previous year, with the price of crude petroleum rising by 49%, iron, and steel up 14%, and softwood lumber jumping 23% from the year before,” says Richard Lara, president, and CEO of RAAM Construction (in an interview with GlobeSt.com). In addition to that, the rising oil and energy prices also increased the cost of logistics (transporting the material). We can observe here a snowball effect that will prolong to 2020+.
We are looking forward to 2020 with great trepidation and we hope that it will be a good year for the construction industry. We can only hope that the snowball effect will eventually stop and reach a flatland.
Anda Alexandra Rosiek
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