This feature provides cost models for three different building types - an office fit-out for a London professional firm, a care home and an affordable housing apartment block.

New build office construction is suffering from a lack of confidence and a scarcity of development financing. Occupiers looking for space are currently more likely to be professional or media organisations than the large financial institutions of yore.

As the population continues to age, the need for more care homes for the elderly and infirm will continue to grow. This cost model looks at the cost of providing a 50-bed unit, at the lower end of the normal project size that usually caters for somewhere between 50 and 100 beds.

Housing continues to be a political problem as the number of households in the UK continues to grow, through net immigration and subdivision of existing families. In most parts of the country house prices may still be falling but for many remain unaffordable. Last year’s Comprehensive Spending Review slashed the budget of the department for communities and local government but the government recognises the need to build more affordable housing and insists that it will continue to invest in such homes through new and improved means.