Identifying the Causes of Delay in the Building Sector in Egypt: A Case Study of Small and Medium-Sized Companies

Delay in the construction industry is known to be a significant issue as indicated by many studies in the past few years. The construction sector in Egypt is not an exception as a wide range of projects are suffering from time overrun. the presence of time overrun in the project is the root of other problems such as cost overrun and poor quality. Hence, one of the simplest ways of dealing with delays is by identifying the causes and sources of delays in construction projects in Egypt. Therefore, this paper discussed the causes of delay in the building sector in Egypt according to the perspective of professional parties working in different small and medium-sized companies. The main method of data collection was a questionnaire survey with small and medium-sized companies in Egypt. The participants had more than 5 years of experience in the Egyptian construction sector. The financial problems faced by owners were considered significant by two different companies which indicates that this factor is usually the reason for delays in projects in Egypt. Ineffective planning and scheduling have also proven to be important in the procedure of preventing delays as it was mentioned by all experts involved in the data collection. This study has shown that the perspective of experts working in different companies may not be the same regarding the causes of delays in the construction sector. The adequate understanding of the causes aids in proposing effective strategies that can reduce the occurrence and impact of delays.