Is 2023 looking like a good year for construction? It appears so! The sector is back on its feet after last year’s steady increases in construction prices.
While prices in general have risen significantly in 2022, mainly due to external factors, the cost of construction has not increased. The construction price index has, in fact, declined significantly. This trend is expected to continue in the first quarter of this year!
According to Statistics Mauritius, in the third quarter of 2022, the construction price index had stood at 131.6, a contraction of 0.4%, reaching 131.1 in the fourth quarter of 2022. In October 2022 the change was 0.5%, while in November and December it was -0.1% and -0.3% respectively.
During the same period, the sub-indices ’Labour’ and ’Transport’ remained unchanged but the sub-index ’Equipment rental’ increased slightly (0.5%).
A 0.6% decrease in the ’Materials’ sub-index was mainly due to lower prices for iron bars (-2.0%) and aluminium openings (-6.0%), but this was partially offset by increases in the prices of filler (4.7%), aggregates (6.4%) and blocks (10.1%) in October 2022.
The drop in the price of iron bars was also partially offset by an increase in the price of carpentry materials (2.4%) in November 2022.
In addition, the lower prices for iron bars (-3.8%) and plumbing (-1.9%) were partially offset by higher prices for wooden carpentry (1.3%) and woodwork (1.6%) in December 2022.
