Maintenance cost increases vary significantly between trades

Inflation in the costs of maintenance work has risen between 3.6% (BMI All-In Maintenance Cost Indices – Services) to 7.5% (BMI All-In Maintenance Cost Indices – Redecorations) over the last 12 months. However the picture is not the same across all trades.

The general trend, as expressed by the BMI All-in Maintenance Cost Index, has seen prices rise by 5.6% between January 2019 and January 2020, but some resource costs have changed by more significant amounts. For example, the costs of steel reinforcement bars and imported timbers and plywood both decreased by over 10% over the period, whereas insulation products and taps and valves for sanitary ware all increased in price by between 8% and 10%. This highlights the importance of using the most up-to-date datasets to ensure accurate estimates.

The building maintenance dataset is available as part of BCIS OpX.