Latest UK Construction Material Costs – January 2023
BuildPartner is aimed at making building prices throughout the UK and beyond as transparent as possible. With this aim we have regularly reported on rising material costs across the UK, the causes of volatility in the market and also how to minimize the variability and risk.
As previously reported 2022 has seen high levels of inflation across all industries and as a result material costs have risen as well. As we look back at 2022, what insights can we pull from the latest UK construction material prices reports? How did 2022 construction costs compare to previous years? And what can we expect moving forwards?
We have summarised 8 key points from the latest UK Construction material prices, released 02 February 2023 supported by BuildPartner’s live price data.
1. Construction costs rose 15% in 2022, compared to 24.5% in 2021 . To put this into perspective , on average construction costs normally rise around 3 – 5% per year. For example, in 2019 there was a 1% decrease in construction costs for that entire year, followed by a 5% increase in costs for 2020. So basically, this isn’t normal.
2. Overall, construction material costs have stabilised, but remain elevated. Since reaching it’s peak in July 2022, we have seen a small reduction in costs with it now stabilising in the last 5 months. This is largely due to a hike in interest rates to cool the level of inflation.
3. However, material costs are still above their long term average. Overall construction material costs have increased by 11.2% from this time last year (December 2021).
4. Insulation materials (thermal or acoustic) have risen the fastest out of all materials by 13% from August 2022 to September 2022. But have since stabilised at this higher rate in the last 4 months.
5. Timber and Joinery materials remain at a stable price. The only major trend can be send from Imported planed and plywood, which has decreased by roughly 25% and is now in line with other timber materials.
6. Cement based products which includes bricks, tiles, cement and concrete continue to rise at roughly 2% per month, with no signs so far of it slowing.
Concrete reinforcing bars however continue to decline in price since peaking in April 2022, but are still elevated by approximately 20%.
7. The price of gravel has increased by roughly 30% since the start of 2022, with it stabilising in price since May 2022.
8. Besides frabricated structural steel, which has seen a continual correction in price since its peak in May, prices for metal products remain stable throughout 2022 and into 2023.
Our thoughts on 2023 prices
The construction industry is facing big headwinds as we likely enter a recession and endure higher interest rates. However, these factors will be countered by the inflationary effects of labour shortages and supply chain issues. As such, we predict prices to remain relatively flat throughout 2023, however dramatic shifts caused by further geopolitical or environment shocks can’t be ruled out.
Written by,
Ken Vilaysane (Product Manager)
P.S Did you know Buildpartner has thousands of tasks and materials which we regularly update in response to changing market environments?
You can use these live labour and material rates in your area to create budgets and quotes for your projects.
Try it out by creating a new project here.