International Construction Costs: A change of pace 2013 | EC Harris

2013 is seeing another change in the evolution of the World Economy. The balance of economic activity may still be shifting towards emerging markets, but China and the other BRIC economies have clearly lost momentum in the past 12 months. More encouragingly, developed economies that were badly affected by the 2008 crash, including the United States, GCC and parts of Europe appear to have started their long and slow recovery.


A slowdown in the growth rate of China, India and other previously dynamic emerging economies could have significant implications for wider global markets, whilst recovery in the US, Japan and Europe, dependent on high levels of stimulus, is far from assured. Despite these contradictory signs, in the medium term, construction is still expected to show substantial growth in most markets, creating continuing challenges around resource allocation and certainty of outcome.


In our ninth annual ‘International Construction Costs’ report we set out to compare construction costs across the key global markets and to identify key changes over the year. In compiling this report, we have been interested in the whether inflation in the most active markets will have changed cost rankings, whether there are any signs of cost escalation in recovering markets and whether some of the big fluctuations that have taken place in currency markets have had an impact on markets such as Japan and Australia.


In this report, we provide an overview of how construction costs vary across the globe today and offer analysis as to why prices in particular markets have changed over the past 12 months. In our commentary we also focus on where growth is likely to come from in a range of key markets in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Americas, and identify potential areas of resource constraint.


(This article features excerpts from the full report – please download it here)