| Tender prices down almost 30pc from peak Tender prices fell by 17.2% over the last twelve months, according to new figures from the Society of Chartered Surveyors. The index for the second half of 2009 shows prices decreased of 7.5%. The figures also show that by the end of the year tender prices had fallen 29% from their peak in the first half of 2007. Chairman of the Quantity Surveyors Division of the SCS, Micheal O’Connor said the figures showed that the trend in below cost tendering was continuing and he warned that this could not continue. |
|
| “The index records tender prices every six months and this is the fifth straight decline in a row. While there was a need for a correction, the continuous fall in tender prices and the extent of those falls year on year is forcing firms to take on jobs at below cost," he said. "This situation is not sustainable for any period and we are seeing that with the amount of firms going out of business and the catastrophic rise in unemployment in throughout this sector,” he added. The SCS has been calling on the government to take advantage of the lower prices and invest in public infrastructural projects. The Society also urged the government to appoint a Chief Adviser to co-ordinate the industry. “These figures show it is an excellent time to embark on a building project. Unfortunately there is very little private sector investment at the moment and the Government has chosen to cut back on the public capital programme,” O’Connor said. “Unless swift, imaginative action is taken now the sector will continue to haemorrhage jobs and we will lose the skills and expertise we have built up over the last fifteen years,” he added. |
