ABSTRACT
The previous chapter investigated the performance of selected high-rise construction projects completed between 2003 and 2012 in the five largest cities in Australia and the United States. Part of this research required the conversion of cost data into a comparable form. A standard basket of construction material, labour and plant, priced in each city, was used for this purpose. The value of the standard basket (defined as equal to one ‘citiBLOC’) became the unit of cost comparison. For example, if a building’s construction cost was AUD$10 million and the citiBLOC index for its location was AUD$10,000, then the ‘cost’ of the project would be computed as 1,000 citiBLOCs. Similarly, if a building was USD$16 million and the citiBLOC index was USD$8,000, then the ‘cost’ would be 2,000 citiBLOCs. The number of citiBLOCs can be used to translate local currency cost data into a comparable form. If the building floor areas were the same, then the US example would have a cost/m2 rate that was twice as expensive as the Australian example.
