A recent global study on how buildings and infrastructure contribute to gross domestic product (GDP) shows Qatar is in the second place on a per-capita basis, with built assets income estimated at $20,630 per person in 2013.
The study was done by EC Harris, an ARCADIS company and built asset consultancy firm.
Developed in conjunction with the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), ARCADIS’ Global Built Asset Performance Index shows Qatar is only behind Singapore and ahead of the UAE, US, Hong Kong and Japan in the ranking.
Terry Tommason, head (Qatar property & social infrastructure) at EC Harris, said, “Qatar is one of the prosperous performers ranked second out of 30 countries in terms of generating GDP from its built environment on a per capita basis. The economy generates significant income per capita from its built asset wealth than many countries which bodes well for future economic growth. Furthermore, the entire Middle East market is expected to show robust growth of 29% in per capita terms over the coming decade and has the potential to raise built asset returns quickly.”
On an absolute basis, however, Qatar ranked 30th out of the 30 markets surveyed, due to its relatively small geographic size and population. On this basis, China, India and Japan all featured in the world’s top five markets in terms of GDP generated from built assets, with the US and Germany completing the top five.
Tommason said, “From our research we can see that countries face many different challenges in order to maximise the performance of their built assets. While some countries are proactively managing their built asset wealth to put them in pole position to reap the economic returns over the coming decade, others are in danger of failing to invest in their ageing built asset base leading to a slow decline in their economic power. Sustaining a built asset base that protects the environment, enables people to thrive and creates economic value is possible but a clear long-term vision to deliver this infrastructure is absolutely essential.”
In terms of future performance, Singapore did not fare as well. While Asia is by far the region that is expected to see the biggest built asset performance expansion by 2022, with eight of the world’s top 11 markets expected to see the most growth are located in Asia, Singapore and Japan were the economies not to be in the world’s top 11.
China, Indonesia, India and Malaysia were all in the top five for projected built asset performance by 2022.
The Global Built Asset Performance Index illustrates, for the first time, how Singapore compares to 29 other countries that collectively represent 82% of global GDP and are a mixture of both advanced and emerging economies. The index reveals that total built asset income within these countries stands at $27.2tn, amounting to 40% of total GDP. This figure is expected to rise to $28.2bn in 2014.
The eurozone countries have some of the highest built asset wealth per capita, but returns are relatively low due in part to a higher proportion of income from services and other intangible sources also due to recent economic stagnation and overcapacity problems. When compared to some of its peers, the UK has lower levels of built asset wealth per capita, but does manage to extract a better than average economic return from its built assets relative to the value of the built asset stock.
The fastest growth in built asset performance over the next decade is expected in China, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia. China’s built asset income is expected to increase dramatically by 77% up to $12tn by 2022. Similarly, income in Indonesia and Saudi Arabia is set to rise by 65% and 70% respectively.
On the whole, built asset performance growth is expected to be greatest in lower income economies, as the process of economic catch up continues over the coming decade. Advanced economies are expected to see built asset returns increase by, on average, 21%, compared to 66% growth expected in emerging markets.