Cost of building same apartment in Dublin is over a third more than in Belfast

The report looked at the costs of building the same apartment block in different locations across Europe.

Zurich was the most expensive with the Estonian capital Tallinn the cheapest.

But Dublin is the second dearest place to build while Belfast, just 140km away and with almost the same supply chain for materials, was the second cheapest.

The report was compiled by the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI) and researchers from Trinity College Dublin.

It looked at the cost of building the same new unit in a seven-storey or more block of mostly two-bed homes.

The average across the 10 cities surveyed came in at €2,057 per sqm. The cost in Dublin is €2,363.

Zurich was the only city more expensive, at €2,866 per sqm. Tallinn was the cheapest at €1,367 per sqm. In Belfast the cost per square metre was €1,755. Amsterdam and Brussels, both large and wealthy cities, are also among the cheaper places to build.

The report, which includes both ‘hard’ costs such as materials and some but not all ‘soft’ costs such as professional fees and taxes, is the first to use a common International Construction Management Standards V3 (ICMS3) to compare costs across markets.

The disparity in costs between Dublin and Belfast in particular needs to be examined, according to Ronan Lyons, associate professor of economics in Trinity College Dublin, and one of the authors of the report.

“In addition to the role of labour productivity, policymakers need to understand the role played by regulatory specifications and standards, as well as differences in soft costs, in affecting overall viability,” he said.

High construction costs in Dublin are a barrier to new housing supply, he said.

“Dublin is somewhat cheaper than the typical city for structural works, typically involving concrete.

However, Dublin’s high overall cost is due in particular to two headings – services and equipment, which includes heating, power elevators, and non-structural works, which covers things like floors, windows and carpentry, he said.

A second author of the report, Bryn Griffiths, vice chair of the SCSI Quantity Surveying Professional Group Committee, said the survey shows construction costs here could be reduced.

“This survey compared the price of a Swiss apartment block if it were built in the ten cities, and it is clear that this design is architecturally very different to what we would deliver in Ireland. The designs we are using here drive higher costs and we believe if planning policy was to adopt alternative approaches and more flexibility, costs could be reduced in this area.”

This article was updated on July 3rd to correct an earlier headline that suggested costs in Dublin were double those in Belfast.