According to the latest RICS India
Construction Market Survey for Q3 2012, workloads in the sector continue to
rise despite the slowdown in the wider economy. The survey result indicate that
sentiment remains relatively upbeat for both the private housing and private
industrial sectors; however sentiment has turned negative for public
non-housing segments. Additionally, workloads in energy and oil and gas, edged
lower for the second consecutive quarter.
Interestingly, the all-important
infrastructure sector is continuing to witness growth, albeit at a more modest
pace than in the precious quarter of the year. Also, the RICS India
Construction Survey which has been designed to capture the sentiment of
professionals working in the sector Indicates that respondents are fairly
upbeat on the prospects of workloads, employment and profit margins in the
coming year. In fact, 97% of the respondents anticipate an increase over the next twelve months on workloads,
with growth expected to average between 7.5 and 10%. The projected gain in
employment in the sector over the same period however is a little more modest
at 2.5 to 5%.
Not surprisingly given the strength of
workloads in the present quarter and what is expected ahead, shortages of
skilled labour continues to be a key factor limiting construction activity in
the country at present. Responses to the country indicate that skills shortages
were visible across all fields including quantity surveyors, other construction
professionals and also semi-skilled works such as bricklayers, plasterers,
plumbers, carpenters and electricians.
In fact 90% of the respondents, much similar
to the Q2 results of the survey indicated that shortage of labour and financial
constraints were the most prominent factors limiting construction activity in
the country, followed closely by planning and regulatory challenges. Other
factors holding up construction activity have been attributed to insufficient demand,
weather conditions, shortage of materials and completion issues. Commenting on
the shortage of manpower in the construction sector in India, Sachin Sandhir,
Managing Director – RICS South Asia said “One of the most prevailed hurdles for
the real estate and construction sector is that of the ‘human resource’ challenger.
The sector has a lack of quality talent which stems from the absence of
specialized education, resulting in the absence of much needed fresh skilled
manpower entering the sector. This has been substantiated by the recent RICS
research ‘Real estate and construction professionals in India by 2020’, which
establishes a demand-supply gap of 44 million core professionals in the sector.
It has been indicated that the shortage of skilled resources have been
responsible for slowing down construction activity by an average of 6 months to
a year. As a result development firms in the recent past have been compelled to
import architects, designers and planners from countries such as Singapore,
Thailand, Australia and New Zealand on handsome salaries thereby pushing up
project costs and impacting profitability. Therefore, there is a pressing need
to adapt and learn new ways to do business, which in turn will aide all
practitioners involved throughout the development process to stay abreast of
the knowledge curve and strengthen their ability to survive the paradigm shift
taking place in global construction markets.”
To this end, it is heartening to note
that for the second quarter running, the use of BIM has increased, with over
25% of respondents using this technology tool over the previous quarter.
According to the survey results, BIM is most widely being utilized for cost
management, with notable usage in the field of design, time management and
facilities management also.
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