Contractors and consultants are counting on a pick-up in defence spending to boost demand for buildings and infrastructure as new figures show total project value of the country’s largest builders dropped 8 per cent last year.

Increasing demands for more Australian defence facilities in a world where the US-dominated post-WWII geopolitical order was changing and pledges by local politicians to boost defence spending made the sector “a sleeper” that could wake up soon, BESIX Watpac chief executive Mark Baker said.