Where Building Has Become More Expensive

The cost of building continues to rise with new data revealing construction costs are up by 1% in the September quarter.

Costs rose the most in Western Australia during the quarter (1.1%), while New South Wales and Queensland are up 1% and Victoria and South Australia are up by 0.9%.

Cotality data, which tracks changes in the price of labour, materials, plant hire and subcontract services across all major trades, shows that many of the increases are being affected by rising fuel costs.

Cotality Cordell Costings estimation manager John Bennett says its understandable that Western Australia costs are rising faster, as many jobs required materials to be trucked over from the eastern seaboard, which added an additional layer of costs.

“Plastic pipe, obviously, is a byproduct of the petrochem industry, so every time that moves, it seems to be the plastics on the move again,” Bennett says.

Bennett says the biggest increases are also in the materials that require trucks to deliver them, such as concrete, steel and plasterboard. He says rising fuel prices are adding to the cost of delivering the materials to site.