[The International Construction Costs Report 2016] found that New York, London and Hong Kong ranked as the world’s most expensive cities to build in, with strong currencies and significant resource constraints resulting in higher prices.
Elsewhere, the gradual recovery in the Eurozone has meant that these markets have avoided this high construction inflation. While, in Asia, the Chinese economic slowdown and weakening demand in many cities means that overall growth in Asia is expected to ease
— arcadis.com
More on the construction market:
13 Comments
Line-item on development pro forma in NYC:
Graft, bribes, "grease," etc. $________
They must be using a different definition of "Shocker" than I'm used to.
I was told by a former CM in Manhattan that the guy who operates the jobsite elevator on highrise projects makes well over $100k per job. I'm not saying this is a bad thing; I support living wages, and in NYC I imagine $100k isn't actually much.
The shocker to me remains that laborers make so much more than architects by comparison.
Because they are in unions.
This list is misleading - they only took the most expensive city in each country. It would be far more useful to have an understanding of costs across a larger range of cities. For example - the top cities in the US for construction costs are (in order): NYC, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia - all of these cities would end up in the top 10.
@donna- $100k a year in NYC is actually pretty good.
I should clarify situationist that it was $100k per job, and this guy said an operator could be on 2, sometimes 3, jobs per year.
^ A crane operator in NYC earns about $80/hour in base pay…with overtime & benefits wages are as high as $300-500k/year, problem is the union work rules require that every crane operator be accompanied by a relief crane operator and an oiler (who basically do nothing) for the entire time a crane is operating….same applies to the elevator operators…now add on the kickbacks…the cranes & elevators set the pace on the jobsite and the subs start paying these guys for preferential treatment…that turns into everybody paying for a lift or a ride, all protected by the powerful Machinist Union who get their share of the kickbacks….after The Mob takes their 2% cut on everything.
Architects need to hook up with The Mob.
@Donna
100K in `NYC is not bad, in fact it is pretty good. Around NYC area it is actually very good.
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Only architect I knew who was making about 85K was a guy employed by MTA ESA
You guys are blowing my mind with the earnings of crane operators and other labor. Can anybody provide a link or more information on this? I work in NYC but on mostly small projects, have not dealt with unions yet. Non-union labor is still expensive compared to other places (I believe), but obviously nothing like what you are quoting.
Union labor is very costly. I've seen projects bid with an all union bids coming in at roughly double non-union ones. Labor costs in general in NY are just really high and combined with the complexities of working in high density areas, it just compounds.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0ahUKEwi23bKh46HKAhVMRSYKHXShBpAQFggjMAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fcomptroller.nyc.gov%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fdocuments%2F220-schedule2014-2015.pdf&usg=AFQjCNGakV8XqvMsOQeHAZ26fTRff-SJKg&sig2=fCnZUd0Hb6IZ9qFQpmRItg&cad=rja
it is all prevailing wage link to all the rates above.
That list is fascinating, Beepbeep.
The majority of wages on that list are higher per hour than I make, most of them substantially so. But then I remember: I get to work indoors, not out in the freaking cold and heat; I don't have to start work before dawn unless I choose to; I can work very flexible hours if I choose; I can take time off to take my kid to the dentist or go to his school play if I want to; I'm not physically punishing my body every day (sitting in an office chair is a different kind of physical punishment, but again: I can choose to get up and move during the day and it's not physical labor); I don't face physical threat from dropped hammers or loads of concrete or electrocution due to the laborer next to me being stoned; I can post on Archinect during the workday...in other words, what I do isn't really *work* in the same way that some laborer handling asbestos in an unheated demo site is doing WORK.
tl;dr - I'm grateful to not be a laborer.
^My dad told me (back in the day) “you’re worth $10/hr. above the neck and $2/hr. below the neck”….guess he was wrong.
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