UK building industry worth four times less than Emaar

The British building industry could be bought for the price of a single Middle Eastern mega project, analysis of the value of the country's largest companies reveals.

Share prices for Persimmon and Taylor Wimpey, Britain's biggest two building firms, have fallen by 84 percent and 94 percent respectively since their peaks in 2007.
Persimmon is now valued at £875 million ($1.73 billion) and Taylor Wimpey at £633 million ($1.25 billion).
Taylor Wimpey, which built more homes in Britain than any other company last year, left itself open to be sold at a firesale price on Thursday when efforts to secure finance of around £500 million failed.

The company saw its shares drop 42 percent in value on the news, despite announcing that it was cutting one-fifth of its UK workforce.

In stark comparison, the Middle East construction industry is booming. King Abdullah Economic City, on the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia, is believed to be costing over $25 billion to build, and is only one of five brand new cities being built across the Kingdom.

Emaar Properties, one of the main developers of Saudi Arabia's Economic Cities, is worth almost $19 billion.

In total, it is estimated that over $2 trillion will be invested in construction projects across the GCC over the next 10 years.

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