Construction cost up 8-9% on existing greenfield projects in Q4 2021 compared to Q4, 2020: JLL 

Mumbai, January 11, 2022: Construction cost of existing greenfield and interior fit-out projects has increased by 8-9% in Q4 2021 (Oct-Dec) as against Q4 2020 (Oct- Dec), as per JLL’s Q4 2021 Construction Price Report.

This is primarily driven by procurement challenges, leading vendors to procure from the first available source at a higher price, increased cost towards health and safety and skilled labour availability. The major impact has been on services, especially Long Lead imported items where there is limited local sourcing of materials. Long Lead Item refers to items whose delivery/supply time is longer as they may be imported from other countries like China, Malaysia and so on. They may also be items that are built as per design. Therefore, these items are not bought off the shelf and take a longer time to reach construction sites.

The impact of the first wave of the pandemic on market benchmark rates has been neutral to significant depending on the asset classes. There are a few challenges like idleness of plant and machinery along with enormous market competition which is compelling contractors to discount their margin as they bid for new projects. This discount is not sufficient to offset the overall hike in construction material and labour costs.

The second wave has given an overall image that the Covid-19 restrictions are there to last for years and with lockdown, transportation, manufacturing challenges, all the stakeholders are anticipating material cost increase for the forthcoming months. The cost impact post-second wave has been significant. The cost of new projects is up by 10-12% while the existing projects went up by 8-9%. The supply chain breakdown is the key reason as the cost of material and its freight account for 50-60% of construction budgets.  

“With the combination of market re-emergence and survival from the hard-hit of Covid-19, construction prices been quite volatile since Q1 2020 that has made investors, developers, contractors take cautious decisions, although the price surge was far above all the assessments. As the market slowly started to recover, the long wait for projects to start have begun, there is always hope for prospects. The Indian construction industry is the key area of global real estate investments, the recovery pace can double fold in the upcoming quarters which will help all the stakeholders to narrow down the loss made in the previous quarters since the Covid-19 outbreak. The volatility is here to stay for a while until industry shows a steady sign of recovery along with other sectors like manufacturing, hospitality, FMCG, infrastructure, leisure and so on,” said MV Harish, Executive Managing Director, Project Development Services, JLL India.