Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Philippines construction industry was growing at a robust pace due to the ongoing infrastructure investment and the launch of the Philippine Construction Industry Roadmap 2020–2030. However, with the government announcing strict measures to slow the spread of the virus, construction output growth forecast for 2020 is expected to slow down to 1.2% from 8.0% before the COVID-19 outbreak projection, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

In a positive development, the country has started to partially ease restrictions due to the economic strain. All public and private construction projects were allowed to resume in areas under the General Community Quarantine (GCQ) from 15^th May, 2020, while in the areas under the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ), selected type of priority construction projects were allowed to resume.

Dhananjay Sharma, Construction Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “The country’s construction industry is still expected to benefit from large-scale infrastructure projects, which will likely be advanced when the COVID-19 spread is contained. On 13^th May, 2020, all major infrastructure projects under the Build, Build, Build (BBB) program were allowed to resume.”

Prior to the outbreak, the government had planned to invest around PHP1 trillion (US$18.9bn) on the BBB program this year, and the implementation of the program could play a major role in the post-pandemic economic recovery of the country.

Sharma concludes: “However, the residential market was already struggling due to slowing domestic economy before the virus outbreak. Sharma adds: “The market is facing further risk as the economy is expected to slump in the second quarter and people take more precautions with regards to property purchases.”