Introduction

Abstract

Books, papers and lectures concerned with the general subject of building costs are frequently introduced with a biblical exhortation that anyone contemplating a building project ought to give serious consideration to the cost of doing so and the availability of the resources to meet these costs (St Luke 14, verse 28). As excellent as this advice is, it only goes part of the way in a contemporary, economic context. For a building developer needs to consider not only the cost of a proposed project but also whether that expenditure is worth incurring. That is, the developer must consider the completed project’s value. Value and cost are the determining factors in the viability of a proposed building project, and the analysis of these concepts is the purpose of this book.