A new report sees the international construction sector significantly outpacing global GDP in growth terms over the next decade and half, with China, India and the United States accounting for the preponderance of increased activity.

The new report, Global Construction 2030, was released by Global Construction Perspective and Oxford Economics. It projects that the average annual growth rate in global construction activity will be 3.9 per cent over the next 15 years, putting it one percentage point above forecasts for global GDP expansion during the same period.

Just three economies – China, India and the United States, will jointly account for 57 per cent of construction activity growth until 2030, with China remaining in first place as the world’s largest market in the sector.

Despite retaining pole position, China’s construction market will see only  “only [marginal]” growth during the next 15 years while India’s will expand at twice the rate of China’s to emerging as host to the world’s third biggest building sector by 2021.

Growth in Indian building activity will be boosted by the country’s upcoming urbanisation wave, with as many as 165 million people expected to move to the country’s cities by 2030.

While unable to reap the growth benefits of belated urbanisation, the US construction sector is nonetheless expected to enjoy roaring growth over the next decade and a half, expanding at a vigorous rate of five per cent per year.

Four cities alone – Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and New York – will jointly host 27 per cent of all construction output in the United States during period till 2030, while states in the south will also give lend strong impetus to growth.

The upcoming surge in US building activity will serve as a welcome turnaround for the country’s construction sector, which is still gradually recuperating from the Global Financial Crisis. Spending on construction has been on the rise over the past four and a half years, rising from an annualised $755 billion in February 2011 to $1.09 trillion in September 2015.

The US building sector employed 6.43 million construction workers in October, with unemployment levels in the sector dropping to their lowest point in eight years.