Building a residential house now costs approximately three times more than what it did five years ago due to substantial rise in labour costs and price of other construction materials.

Construction cost per square feet now hovers around Rs 2,400 as against Rs 850 five years ago, with labour charges going through the roof due to scarcity of workers here.Skilled masons, for instance, now charge around Rs 1,000 per day, as against Rs 450 five years ago, said civil engineer at Sharma & Company Birendra Kumar Jha.

Even general unskilled labourers demand at least Rs 330 per day now, as against Rs 220 half a decade ago, while helpers and general masons do not agree to render services for less than Rs 425 and Rs 550 per day, respectively, as against Rs 300 and Rs 350 five years ago.

“People working at construction sites are demanding more money every day due to shortage of labourers in the domestic market. This is the prime cause that is pushing up the cost of building a house,” Jha said.

One of the main reasons for exorbitant labour costs is flight of labourers from the domestic market to the Gulf and countries like Malaysia. As per statistics of the Department of Foreign Employment, up to 1,200 people leave the country every day for foreign job destinations. This means some 450,000 people who join the domestic labour market per year are getting job placements abroad.

“If this trend continues we will either have to continue paying higher wages or take the support of technology to reduce construction costs,” Jha said.But higher labour charge is not the only cause that is push ing up construction costs.

Prices of major construction materials such as steel, cement, bricks, sand and aggregates have also gone up lately.One brick, for instance, which could be bought for around Rs 3 five years ago now costs Rs 10, up 233 per cent.

Per cubic feet of sand, which used to cost around Rs 20 half a decade ago, now costs around Rs 50. Similarly, per cubic feet of boulder has become dearer by around 112 per cent at Rs 36, while cost of per cubic feet of aggregates like chips has doubled to Rs 60 in the last five years.

Price of OPC cement has also gone up to Rs 760 per 50kg sack from Rs 600 five years ago, while the cost of steel has perked up to Rs 80 per kg from Rs 58 half a decade ago.

“While rising costs of these materials are putting pressure on builders, hike in prices of petroleum products and power shortages have also added to the costs,” Jha said.If this continues, experts say, many middle-income people may not be able to afford to build a house.

source:Poudel,Subarna (2014),"Cost to build a house goes through the roof ,The Himalayan Times,3 jan 2014
photo: THT