RE: cost escalation on building materials?

[lapx]

Does anyone know of a source for statistics about historical construction costs or projections into the future on building and construction?

[Krisidious]

sweets?

http://products.construction.com/portal/server.pt

for the last few years it's been around 9% to 10%

yeah I know... ouch...

Object moved

(www.facilitiesnet.com)

[lapx]

Thanks Kris,

Is this a pay per use with sweets, I will have a look.
Is Engineering News Record a good source? Just looking for alternatives.

[Krisidious]

I'm not sure... I have the 2004 CD set from sweets... I'm not a standard subscriber...

and I'll have to look up that journal...

[solo]

This is a good talking point for quantity surveyors, however as a design/builder there are many issues that come into play here.

I was recently looking through 'Means Contractors pricing guide' and they made a few predictions in 2004 about costs escalating at about 4% over the next few years, then Katrina hit the gulf states and in 2005-2006 those numbers jumped 11% due to shortage of materials. So I would work with 7-9% as a rule of thumb.

[Mike Lucey]

Kris, you are perfectly right about the 10% increase in constructions costs. Its the Chinese and Indian economies putting up all those new buildings. Maybe better to get out of buildings and into Commodities Investment

Mike