Sweden tops Euro costs

The study found that costs per square meter in Sweden are *1055 – but the UK is not far behind. It falls in the top half of the construction costs table, at around *800/m2. Greece is the cheapest place to build, at just over *600/m2.

The survey, conducted for QS News’s sister magazine Building, compared costs across 14 European countries for a generic 2250m2 factory over 25 years.

In terms of whole-life costs, Franklin + Andrews found that Portugal is the least expensive place to build a factory, closely followed by Italy and then Greece. All three countries have costs of less than *2000/m2, making them roughly 45% cheaper than the UK. At the other end of the league, Finland has the highest whole-life costs, at nearly *3000/m2 – just 10% more than the UK – due to high labour costs and low productivity.

Franklin + Andrews pointed out that energy is not always expensive in wealthier counties. Sweden was found to be the cheapest for energy and utilities, at about *225/m2, while Austria is well ahead of the rest of Europe, at around *775/m2. The UK comes in at third most expensive, with costs of 400/m2.

The cost and productivity of labour was highlighted as a significant factor in the cost of operating a building. The survey found that Germany and Belgium are the most productive, while Greece came bottom of the league. Again, the UK falls in the middle of the two extremes.

In order to compare like with like for labour costs, variables such as local building regulations, land costs, taxation regimes and funding issues were stripped out.

The UK remains Europe’s highest payer, with the average salary for a worker up to *22,395 from *21,805 last year.

The study also looked at cleaning and maintenance costs and found that, again, Sweden was the most expensive, with a figure of *1350/m2. The UK comes third at *1000/m2, with Portugal at half the rate of the UK at *500m2.