SCOTLAND’S construction market saw a rise in infrastructure activity in Q3, 2025 in what was overall a ‘flat’ picture for the sector, according to the latest Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Construction Monitor.
Despite the lack of overall growth, the report found that surveyors are more optimistic about the outlook for the year ahead than had been seen previously.
A net balance of 1% of survey respondents reported a rise in construction workloads in Scotland, which is up from the -14% seen in Q2.
Looking at sub-sectors, a net balance of respondents indicated there were falls in activity in public housing (-12%), private commercial (-6%) and private industrial (-18%), whilst activity in private housing was seen to be broadly flat. Infrastructure and other public works were the only sub-sectors with positive net balances (13% and 16% respectively).
A net balance of 12% of Scottish respondents expect overall workloads to rise over the next year, which is up from the 5% seen in Q2. However, surveyors are cautious about the outlook for profit margins. A net balance of -10% of respondents anticipate profit margins will fall over the next year.
Surveyors in Scotland are reporting increased skills shortages. 60% of survey respondents noted a shortage of quantity surveyors (up from 50% in the last survey), 40% reported a shortage of bricklayers (up from 37%), and 44% highlighted a shortage of other construction professionals (up from 38%).
Alan Fairweather of Scottish Water, based in Perth, said there has been significant growth in all areas of infrastructure and this was putting pressure on available skills.
Chris Marshall of Lundin Homes Ltd in Glenrothes added. “There is a serious problem in obtaining and retaining skilled workers in all sub-contractor trades and we see very little activity relating to apprenticeships.”
Robert Toomey, senior public affairs manager at RICS, Scotland said, “Though extremely modest, it’s positive to see Scotland bucking the negative workload trend that can be seen across the UK, thanks to an uptick in infrastructure and other public works. Nevertheless, this belies the sharp fall in public housing activity and stagnant private housing delivery; areas we desperately need to see growth in if Scotland is going to effectively tackle the housing emergency.”
