Skip to content
Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

LUMBER SHORTAGE CRIMPS APARTMENT CONSTRUCTION

As the price of single-family homes leaves more and more prospective buyers behind, the record price of lumber is raising costs and, therefore, rental rates for new flats.
Many apartment blocks are made of metal and concrete, but wood still figures prominently in cabinets, trim, flooring, and some structural components.
The cost of building materials, in general, has risen 25 to 30 percent over the past 12 months, the largest one-year price jump since 1988, data firm CoStar reported.
The price hikes failed to slow multifamily home construction, which sprinted through 2020 at a record pace, thanks to rising rents, which climbed 4 percent during this year’s first quarter alone, CoStar said.
Meanwhile, government construction and building in commercial sectors such as storefronts and office blocks have slowed. 
As a result, subcontractors are cutting their prices to win businesses, a move that helps to mitigate the relentless rise in materials costs.
At the end of 2019, subcontractors’ margins were averaging around 20 percent, David Askie, director of cost planning at Lendlease, an international construction firm, told the Wall Street Journal.  
Now margins have shrunk to about 5 percent because “they want the work,” he said.
TREND FORECAST: In the commercial sector, we maintain our forecast for continuing decline as fewer people commute to work and more people shop online. Indeed, today, the Associated General Contractors reported that non-residential construction spending in April declined for the fifth-straight month to a two-year low.