San Francisco overtakes New York as most expensive city to build

San Francisco has unseated New York City as the most expensive place on earth to build, with construction costs forecast to rise a further 6 percent in 2019 as tech sector expansion continues to drive construction demand, according to new research from global professional services company Turner & Townsend.

The average cost of construction in the city has reached $417 per square foot, as high demand from Silicon Valley’s tech giants for new-build commercial buildings makes the Bay Area the hottest construction market in the United States. Construction cost inflation in San Francisco ran at 5 percent in 2018.

The International Construction Market Survey 2019 finds that only three markets worldwide — San Francisco, Seattle and Amsterdam — are classed as “overheating”. In North American cities, the impac