[1] Temuka's Courthouse Museum restoration project.
In March 2020, the estimation to earthquake strengthen the 120-year-old building stood at $320,000. According to information provided by the society’s structural engineer and a ‘concept estimate report’ by their quantity surveyor in April 2021, to complete the project to an acceptable heritage standard could roughly cost $532,000 plus GST. Built in about 1900, the building operated as a courthouse until 1979. The society formed in 1981 and purchased the building a year later, converting it into a museum. The museum is listed as a category two historical building by Heritage New Zealand and a category B by the Timaru District Council. [NZBE Link]
[2] Quantity surveyor Patricia Power: Waiting to build ‘could make a difference of €20,000’.
All anyone is talking about is costs, she says, of the fierce price hikes in every sector of the industry. Builders’ tenders are only valid for seven days after issue because rising costs mean after that time prices have to be recalculated. The increase in demand is crazy. Those who didn’t spend money on their usual holidays and dining out have saved considerable sums. The lockdowns, supply shortages, Brexit impacting the cost of deliveries from and through the UK, the cost of transporting goods from China and the shortage of labour in Ireland have impacted every single part of the industry. Materials such as stone paving, which used to cost €30 per sq m now costs €42, an increase of over 28 per cent. It is now cheaper to source from Europe, even though it costs more there. The turnaround time is faster too. [Ireland] [NZBE Link]
[3] Common mistakes made by first-time property developers.
Not getting the numbers right. You’ll start with ball-park pricing estimates, but before the deal goes ahead, you should be getting accurate pricing for the project from your quantity surveyor/cost consultant. A common mistake is to fail to firm up all your pricing estimates in this way or to assume that the price you were quoted on the last project won’t have changed much. Not allowing for a contingency fund is another biggie. Always allow for 10-15% of the construction costs as a contingency because you will almost always encounter unexpected costs. Too many new developers either fail to have an adequate contingency or dial too many of their pricing assumptions to ‘optimistic’ to get their numbers to work. [NZBE Link]
[4] Rugby was the winner on the day.
France’s World Rugby player of the year Antoine Dupont has masterminded Toulouse’s big European Champions Cup win over a Cardiff team forced to field a club rugby groundsman, a teacher, a quantity surveyor and a student. The Welsh club were without a staggering 42 players due to injuries, suspensions and Covid-19 quarantine issues for the first-round match at Cardiff Arms Park. The call-ups included Rowan Jenkins (a groundsman) and Geraint James (quantity surveyor) and primary school teacher Evan Yardley and recruitment consultant Alex Everett. Not surprisingly, Cardiff crashed 39-7, but stand-in coach Gruff Rees was proud of his patched-up side’s performance in front of 10,000 partisan fans. [Wales] [NZBE Link]
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“Celebrating 50 years of New Zealand Building Economist 1972 to 2021”
By Matthew Ensoll
FNZIQS. Reg.QS.
Editor New Zealand Building Economist.