Arcadis, the global design and consultancy firm, released its International Construction Cost Index today, which put New York at the top of the list as the world’s most expensive major city to build, but also notes the US this year has dominated global inbound construction investment.
The study, which detailed the relative cost of building across 44 of the world’s major cities, found that rapidly shifting commodity prices, political instability and fluctuating currencies are making investment and development decisions in 2016 more complex and risky than ever before.
Despite this, over the past year, the US construction market saw the biggest inward investment in built assets in the world – with 40 percent of all global investments flowing into the United States. At the same time, the index found that labor costs and skyrocketing insurance premiums for builders in New York City could trigger a shift in investment to lower-cost cities in emerging markets.
Kevin Herron, Arcadis’ Director of Cost Consultancy, is an engaging spokesperson who can bring the report to life and pivot into compelling topics for your audience, such as the burgeoning impact of Uber on new development projects, the future of technology and synthetic materials in construction, and how the internet of things is driving multi-billion dollar data center builds in places like North Dakota, Iowa and Colorado.
Some of the study’s additional key findings include:

• Price inflation in hot local markets in the US and UK is beginning to threaten the viability of commercial and public sector projects. This is making it much harder for New York, London and other cities to capitalize on growth opportunities.
• The strength of the dollar puts US and dollar-denominated investors in a strong position to invest in global markets. Currency depreciation and slowing cost inflation has seen many Asian and European cities fall further down in the rankings.
• Falling energy prices, quantitative easing and a tumbling Euro are providing a tailwind for the construction industry in Europe.  Across the EU, the construction industry is expected to grow for the next three years by 2.3 percent per year, led by the UK, Czech Republic and Poland.

You can download a copy from the press release linked here.