By Poovenraj Kanagaraj
Global design and consultancy, Arcadis, in its annual Arcadis International Construction Cost Index (ICC) has listed capital city, Kuala Lumpur as Asia’s fourth cheapest city to build in.
Kuala Lumpur ranking 97 in the list was joined by Mumbai, Shenzhen, Bangkok and Hangzhou as one of the 10 least expensive cities.
Asian cities such as Hong Kong, Tokyo and Macau were found to be some of the most expensive cities. Joining their ranks as some of the most expensive cities was Geneva, London, New York City and Zurich among others.
“In recent years the Malaysian government has made considerable progress to expand and modernised its infrastructures throughout the country. Despite this, construction activity was flat in 2018 with only 0.9% growth, mainly owing to political unrest causing major delays to public infrastructure spending,” said Justin Teoh, Arcadis’ Head of Malaysia
“The Covid-19 outbreak is also hitting the economy hard with tourism, transportation and aviation sectors most affected. The construction market is likely to be affected by supply shock caused by companies experiencing difficulties finding labour and resources and project shutdowns as a result of public health protocols,”
“As the world emerges from the outbreak, government economic stimulus in major infrastructure projects again. At this point, the industry must then adopt smart ways to increase productivity and control costs to create the profits and headroom to invest in sustainability measures and solutions,” he concluded.
