The Relation between Building Height and Construction Costs in 1 to 50- Storey Residential Buildings

The engineering advances in various fields including construction, along with changes in municipal and national policies against urban sprawl have strengthened the case for high-rise developments particularly in metropolitan areas. This is particularly significant when it comes to urban development and policy making. Taken from an MSc dissertation of the same title, the present paper studies the relation between the number of storeys and construction costs. In order to do so, quantitative data collected from suppliers and contractors of various projects, as well as interviews with experts have been used in the subsequent BIM modelling. Overall results show that despite commonly held views, high-rise construction costs are not necessarily higher, and that the consideration of construction costs needs to be based on respective charts for each height range. For instance, in seven, 42, and 48-storey buildings, every single extra floor results in the extra costs that turn the project from viable to non-viable. In line with the above, the suggested optimum number of floors for ordinary urban and mass developments is nine. In plots designated for high-rise developments, a 30–40 floor development is preferred. The present study focuses merely on construction costs, and does not scrutinise land prices and infrastructure costs, nor cultural and social influences on property markets.