Listed companies in the UK construction and building materials sector issued six profit warnings in the third quarter of 2026, according to figures from EY-Parthenon.
The total was three times the number recorded in the previous quarter, when two companies in the sector issued warnings. Across all companies listed on the London Stock Exchange, 65 profit warnings were issued in the three months to September, compared with 59 in Q2.
Housebuilders pass financial crisis benchmark
EY-Parthenon also recorded six profit warnings from listed housebuilders so far this year, taking the sector’s year-to-date total to 14. That is higher than the 10 warnings recorded in 2008 during the global financial crisis.
Claire Gambles, a partner at EY-Parthenon, said warnings linked to cost and supply chain pressures were at their highest level in nearly four years.
“Housebuilding has become the epicentre of these cost and interest rate pressures,” she said.
“The sector will be hoping that confirmation of the government’s renewed support for first-time buyers will improve reservations and transaction volumes, although key details including eligibility, local price caps, developer contributions and timing are all still to be confirmed.”
EY-Parthenon did not identify the companies included in its research. It defines a profit warning as an official statement to the stock exchange indicating that a listed company expects to report full-year profits “materially below management or market expectations”.
A company stating that its profits are likely to be at the lower end of existing expectations is treated as issuing a downgraded forecast rather than a profit warning.
Brickmaker Ibstock, for example, said in its August interim results that its full-year adjusted core profit would be “around the lower end of current market expectations”. Its analyst range for 2026 adjusted EBITDA was £59m to £68m. Hargreaves Lansdown described the announcement as a downgrade rather than a full profit warning, noting that Ibstock did not say profits would be “below” market expectations.
Share prices fall
The median share price of listed construction and building materials companies fell by 9.6% between July and September, compared with a 6.9% decline in the second quarter. Between January and September, the median share price fell by 8.7%, EY-Parthenon said.
Across the wider market, 17% of UK-listed companies had issued at least one profit warning in the previous 12 months.
Jo Robinson, an EY-Parthenon partner and UK and Ireland financial restructuring leader, said the figures reflected the combination of economic pressures and structural changes affecting companies.
“This is not a conventional economic cycle,” she said. “For much of the post-war period, the economy followed a familiar demand-led boom-and-bust pattern but since the pandemic, supply-side disruption including material and labour shortages, energy shocks, tariffs and wider geopolitical disruption has become far more significant.
“Companies are also facing existential questions about their business models, as consumer behaviour evolves and AI reshapes competitive positions and routes to market.”