Abstract:
The cost of building materials poses a significant threat to the construction industry and
construction professionals. This research set out to study the rate of price increase of building
materials on the Ghanaian construction market by examining the trend of price increase,
developing price indices for some selected building materials, determining the causes of
price increase of building materials and identifying the factors that influence pricing
decisions when determining the final level of building material prices. Data were collected
from 32 contractors, 33 building material suppliers and 30 quantity surveyors through selfcompletion
questionnaire. Prices of selected building materials spanning from years 2011 to
2016 were obtained from the Public Procurement Board, Ghana for studying the trend of
prices increase and also for development of price indices. Comparative analysis was used for
studying the trend and the research made use of factor analysis in deriving the main factors
that influence pricing strategies. It was found that building materials prices keep increasing
year after year, which was caused by crude oil prices, energy cost, local taxes and charges,
and cost of fuel and power supply. Economic factors, market conditions, environmental
factors, political factors, producer related factors and production related conditions were
found to be the factors that influence the choice of pricing decisions. The study therefore
concludes that the prices of building materials keep increasing and if measures are not taken
to control the causes, future prices are expected to escalate. It is recommended that drastic
steps should be taken by the government to control the factors that cause the increase in the
prices of building materials on the Ghanaian construction market.
Description:
A Dissertation in the Department of CONSTRUCTION AND WOOD
TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION, Faculty of TECHNICAL EDUCATION, submitted
to the School of Graduate Studies, University of Education, Winneba in partial
fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the Master of Philosophy
(Construction Technology) degree.
SEPTEMBER, 2017