A CPA spokesperson said the Office of National Satistics figures indicated continuing challenging conditions for construction in 2013.
New orders were 7% down in the third quarter compared with a year before and 5% on the first half of the year.
The CPA said one brighter area was infrastructure and private industrial construction new orders had shown double digit increases of 46% and 24% respectively for the first nine months.
"It would be very encouraging if this percentage growth was repeated across all sectors, but the figures for these two sectors are not unexpected and the overall figure of orders for all new work is negative," said Milja Keijonen, CPA senior economist.
Commercial and private housing, which accounted for 36% of total construction output in 2011, saw orders decline both quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year in the third quarter.
New orders for commercial work, the largest construction sector, were 18% lower in the first nine months of 2012 compared with the same period in 2011, while private housing saw orders decline by 7% from a year earlier.
