Cost & project management

Cost estimates are one of the best problem-solving tools an owner, design team and construction manager have at their disposal. However, they are often treated as a formality, pulled together for compliance, when the wealth of information that is contained is often lost and rarely fully-leveraged to the extent it should.

With a desire to keep soft costs down, there is a reluctance amongst owners to invest more in the design and tendering phases of the project development. However, spending a bit more on the design team prior to construction seems to make a lore more sense, especially with millions of dollars in savings being left on the table.

Reductions in on-site labour, temporary construction shutdowns, and new site working protocols due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will cause the real estate and construction industry to feel the effect of this virus for months, and possibly years to come. The following identifies some of the risks, and provide some guidance on key strategies that owners and developers can follow going forward.

How Altus Group's Canadian data and advisory services responded to COVID-19 with enhanced infrastructure and work practices

Answers to help developers safely navigate the current and potential impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on active construction projects.