Q4 Cost Report: Consultant Warns to Watch International Labor Markets, Brexit
Increasingly destructive natural disasters, trade tensions between two of the world’s largest economies, a continued skilled-labor shortage and rising raw-materials prices resulted in higher construction costs in many major markets in 2018, say executives of London-based global construction cost consultant Currie & Brown.
Construction costs in some U.S. markets—notably San Francisco, New York City, Seattle and Portland, Ore.—reached up to 6% escalation through 2018 due to tariffs and a stretched labor market. While high-tech and data-center construction activity is expected to continue to grow in 2019, some sectors are anticipated to decline. Seattle and Portland are expected to see recently hot sectors such as multifamily residential property and mixed-use development cool off through 2019.