Late approvals and mid-project changes are two of the main pressure points on construction budgets, according to PlanRadar’s 2026 Construction Survey Report. PlanRadar sells construction project management software, so the report comes from a company that wants project teams to track changes digitally. The figures are still worth reading closely if you order materials, plan site work or manage contractors.
Key takeaways
- According to PlanRadar’s 2026 Construction Survey Report, late approvals and mid-project changes are two of the main pressure points on construction budgets.
- The survey covered 1,728 construction professionals in 14 countries across Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific.
- About two in three respondents said more than 10% of their projects go over budget.
- The report ranks delayed approvals as the top pain point and says the risk of a delay of a month or more roughly doubles where approvals are often late.
- PlanRadar sells construction project software, so its recommendations should be read with care.
Who the survey asked
The survey covered 1,728 construction professionals in 14 countries across Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. Every respondent was screened as someone personally responsible for delivering projects on time and on budget. UAE results are not reported separately in the public summary, so the figures describe the wider sample rather than the UAE alone. The summary also gives no sampling or margin of error details, so treat the percentages as indicative.
The headline findings
- About two in three respondents said more than 10% of their projects go over budget.
- About two in three said mid-project changes commonly cause overruns.
- Nearly eight in ten said most project documentation sits in email, phone calls and text messages rather than a shared system.
- Around 70% felt confident they could prove who was responsible for a delay when documents were easy to find, compared with 35% when they were hard to find.
- Nearly half spend 11 or more hours a week on administrative work.
- Among those who had adopted a central change-tracking tool, about 80% reported better cost control or margin protection.
Why approvals matter
The report ranks delayed approvals as the top pain point for respondents. It says the risk of a delay of a month or more roughly doubles on projects where approvals are often late. Managing mid-project changes ranks as the second biggest daily challenge, behind keeping projects on schedule.
What it means for materials and site teams
The survey is about project management rather than materials, but the link is direct. A late approval can push back the date materials are ordered. A change agreed after material has been bought can leave quantities out of step with the work. These are our own suggestions, not the report’s:
- Record material changes in writing on the day they are agreed, with the drawing or revision they relate to.
- Check supplier lead times before confirming a new quantity or specification.
- Keep one current copy of the approved quantities and check every order against it.
If you need to work out quantities for a change, our guide on how much paint you need walks through the arithmetic step by step.
Reading the findings with care
The report comes from a company that sells construction project software, and its recommendations favour digital tracking tools. The findings are useful as a prompt to check your own project records, but they should be weighed alongside your own data.
Source
PlanRadar, Construction Survey Report 2026 (summary published on PlanRadar’s blog): Managing project changes and AI in construction: key findings from 1,728 construction professionals. The summary is written by the vendor, gives no sampling method, and does not report UAE results separately. Figures checked against this page on 30 October 2026.
