Construction and related costs: towards an economy of overlooked costs

The construction sector, or at the very least the residential sector, has a lot to teach us.

Everyone agrees that there is an annual production shortfall of around one hundred thousand homes. However, for some, the answer to this demand is to create an enforceable right to housing, and possibly to suggest that professionals increase the volume of supply.

In fact, there is never any question of producing at a lower cost, as if no productivity gains were conceivable. This concealment of the economic dimension of production is fairly symptomatic of an industry that implicitly ignores any global reflection on technical costs, relying instead on market-based price regulation.

It's true that, in essence, the notion of "cost" is totally linked to a tacit protocol of collective practices. However, this protocol is firmly anchored in the renewal of production methods, which are considered immutable and part of a tried-and-tested technical culture that is difficult to question.

Nevertheless, today's world is increasingly defined by the growing scarcity of available resources, whether in terms of collective infrastructure or "shared" services. In this respect, the construction industry cannot afford not to take an in-depth look at how it uses the resources at its disposal.

More specifically, it seems necessary to reason about construction costs in such a way as to free up room for manoeuvre in the face of new challenges. This exercise begins with a careful examination of all aspects of the cost concept.

To get a better idea of the costs associated with construction, three categories can be observed, starting with the current scope of accounting and extending to a broader range of criteria.

First of all, the costs resulting from the organization of players are far from negligible, even if this observation may go against established certainties. In fact, a closer analysis of current practices reveals unsuspected expenses that need to be called into question, insofar as their direct usefulness for the built environment has not been established.

A second field of investigation is that of design-related costs. Admittedly, this is a more traditional field, since everyone agrees that certain features of a project's design are more or less efficient. However, there's no reason why we shouldn't try to understand how this stage in the construction value chain can be improved.

Finally, externalities form a final class of costs. It's not that these never existed before, but simply that they have only really been considered in recent years. In fact, construction is bound to generate a certain number of impacts on...