Factors Affecting in Cost Estimation Process for Construction Residential Projects

Abstract

Cost estimation process in early stage plays an important role in the achievement of any construction project. Cost estimating is an assessment of the expected cost of any construction project. The accuracy of such estimate has a serious effect on the expected profit of the construction contractor. Hence, a certain contingency percentage should be added to the base estimate to improve the level of confidence. The process of cost estimating is materially affected by many factors. This aims of this research to identify the factors that affect the accuracy of cost estimation process for construction residential projects and the most common methods used in cost estimation process in Iraqi construction projects. The researcher conducted a number of personal interviews experts in the cost estimation process and then distributed 100 questionnaires to the engineers and experts have experience in the field of construction projects. Only 85 of them were recovered. The researcher used Pareto Analysis Technique to find the factors that have more significant impact on Cost Estimation Process The results showed that there are factors that significantly affect the cost estimate The results indicated that some factors are heavily considered to have high influence such as experience of estimator, market status, economic instability, accuracy of bidding documents, site conditions, total area of residential building, estimating method, project location.