Built environment: Driving future growth

The built environment: strong growth, robust M&A and PE interest

The built environment sector is experiencing a purple patch of strong growth, renewed M&A activity, and private equity interest. Strong public investment flows, decarbonisation, the exponential growth in digital, and the huge demand for mission-critical assets like data centres and energy infrastructure, are all conspiring to create the foundations for a mini boom for builders, engineers, and the rest of the built sector ecosystem.

At the same time, changing social priorities, regulator expectations, and technology are redefining how built assets are designed, financed, and operated.

These shifts are creating growth opportunities across a wide value chain – from construction and engineering to facilities management and proptech. Increasingly, however, the strongest momentum is being shaped by where major technology and digital-infrastructure investment flows, particularly in data centres and high-specification industrial facilities.

As a result, strategic investors and private equity funds are increasing their exposure to the sector, attracted by its solid fundamentals and its alignment with long-term digital growth, decarbonisation and national infrastructure trends.

Christopher Brown

Partner, Head of Strategy

KPMG in Ireland

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Built environment fundamentals:
the stars align

Activity in the built environment sector is being driven by a rare alignment of supply and demand side factors, namely:

Digitalisation

The exponential growth of cloud computing and AI has turned data centres into mission-critical infrastructure.

As digital growth accelerates, demand for hyperscale, colocation, and edge facilities has created a new asset class within real estate and infrastructure portfolios, driving land acquisition, power and grid investment, and construction activity at unprecedented scale.

London and Dublin have been victims of their own success in this regard, and grid infrastructure is having to play catch up to installed capacity.
Heavy public infrastructure & residential housing investment

Ireland’s National Development Plan is funnelling billions into the national infrastructure between 2026 and 2035, a large chunk of which is going into housing in a bid to build 300,000 new homes by 2030.

This, alongside relevant regulation on fire protection, water and energy provision is sustaining demand for construction, design and engineering, materials, and sub-contractors, and creating suitable conditions for built environment players to scale through large public contracts or partnerships.
Net zero

The built environment sector accounts for almost 40% of Ireland’s CO2 emissions when combining operational and embodied carbon.

Ireland is committed to decarbonise and the government has set multiple policies to address this, creating new work streams to meet the urgent need for retrofits, sustainable materials, energy system upgrades, as well as higher-standard new builds.

These work streams also intersect with ESG-linked financing and investor demand.
Technology and modern construction methods

The sector is increasingly adopting digital tools and modern methods of construction (MMC) such as BIM, modular, and digital twins to support growth and efficiency.

These methods facilitate faster delivery, leaner supply chains, superior quality control and cost efficiencies, underpinning growth in a challenging supply-chain and labour environment.

Firms that adopt and embed these methods will be better placed to scale, differentiate, and deliver high-value projects.
Life sciences

While headline growth has flattened, the depth of Ireland’s biopharma base ensures continual retrofit, upgrade and compliance-driven project activity.

High-spec environments, cleanroom enhancements, and process-system improvements keep specialist contractors and engineering firms engaged even when other markets soften.
Semiconductors

Semiconductor investment is large but volatile. When projects land, they generate multi-billion, multi-year construction and engineering programmes with significant M&E, commissioning and utilities demands.

However, timing is tied to global chip cycles and geopolitical incentives. The result is a high-impact but irregular demand driver that shapes capability across the mission-critical supply chain.

Estimated construction market growth, Ireland

Total annual dwelling retrofits completed in Ireland

UK housebuilding outlook, annual new build completions

Voice of the market, housebuilding supply chain specialists

Semiconductor market revenue growth worldwide

Positioning for investor confidence

Inevitably, investors and majors are taking notice of these conditions, as evidenced by healthy M&A activity levels (e.g. John Sisk & Son acquisition of Farrans Construction from CRH plc, or Stantec’s acquisition of Ryan Hanley).

Recent deal activity reflects a convergence of financial and strategic drivers, with investors repositioning portfolios toward net-zero-aligned assets and operational resilience amid shifting cost structures and regulation.

At the same time, sector players are pursuing scale and capability through acquisitions, whether in digital design and data analytics or offsite manufacturing and energy-efficient retrofitting.

Together, these dynamics are reshaping market boundaries and prompting new partnerships between traditional construction firms, infrastructure operators, and technology specialists.

Investor interest is not evenly distributed across the sector however, with a clear focus on capability, scale, and differentiation. Investors are looking for platforms that combine proven delivery with technological and sustainability credentials — particularly those able to manage complex, regulated or energy-intensive assets.

Strategic partnerships, digital enablement, and disciplined balance-sheet management are defining features of players across every sector niche, with examples as diverse as TLI, H&MV, Suir, Kirby, Collen, PMGroup, and KSN.

As the sector evolves, the ability to demonstrate resilience, data-driven performance, and contribution to net-zero objectives will be central to sustaining investor confidence and long-term growth.

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The evolution of today’s built environment landscape is faster than ever before, and sector players need to think about how they are going to respond in real time to capitalise on these changes. Connect with us today to explore how our strategic services can empower your organisation.

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