If 2026 is anything like its predecessor, there’s no telling what will end up on builders’ business punch lists this year. After all, who anticipated the magnitude of President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs going into 2025?

But there are a few aspects to nonresidential construction that contracting pros would do well to pay attention to as the year unfolds.

Stacked on top of the building sector’s usual fretting about interest rates and materials costs (cue the aforementioned tariffs), pros need to keep an eye on immigration enforcement, the possibility of a data center bubble and novel legal clauses making their way into contracts. 

Read on for the important trends and topics construction execs need to track in 2026.