Prices of building materials on rise

Building costs rose by 5.8 per cent in July 2021 compared with the previous year's July, according to Statistics Finland.

The costs of materials went up by 8.3 per cent and labour costs by 3.5 per cent from one year ago. The prices of services rose by 1.2 per cent.

The costs of building materials were raised particularly by timber, in which the rise in prices that had continued for several months accelerated in July.

Month-on-month changes in the price of timber were, on average, 7.0 per cent in April to June but as much as 21.3 per cent in July. The prices of materials went up by 2.7 from the previous month.

From June to July, the total index of building costs rose by 1.5 per cent and that of services by 0.9 per cent. Labour costs remained unchanged from the previous month.