Darren Cash, Director of Cost Management and Corporate Occupier Sector Lead in Canada at Tuner & Townsend, joins the podcast today. He’s here to talk about what’s transpiring in the development market across Canada and the recent turbulence in construction costs.

COVID-19 has had a large influence on construction costs since lockdowns began in March 2020, so Darren takes us back there to explain what happened. He talks about how the pandemic is still influencing prices and the positive outlook for the remainder of the year.

Topics covered include:

• Robust construction in Canadian cities and how Turner & Townsend is performing.
• The impact of the higher costs of labour during the pandemic.
• What Darren anticipates will happen to construction in Q3 2021.
• The increase in the cost of lumber throughout 2021 thus far.
• Where prices may begin to decrease in the real estate space this year.
• What happened to construction costs when the pandemic first hit.
• The low number of construction projects that were forced to shut down during the pandemic.
• Collaboration that happened in the industry due to COVID-19.
• Cost increases in the worst-hit jurisdictions.
• Uncertainty surrounding future valuations.
• The trend of investor confidence in Canada and why it exists.
• Diluting office space due to working from home.

More about our guest….

Darren Cash, a Director of Turner & Townsend, leads our national Cost Management and Corporate Occupier sector teams. He is based in Toronto and has over 19 years’ experience in the construction industry covering the UK, Middle East and Canada.

He specializes in the delivery of pre and post-contract Cost Management services for Developers, Architects and Lenders including Proforma Development, Cost Estimating, Value Management, Procurement Advisory, Payment Certification and Project Monitoring. In addition, he has also provided P3 advisory services to Lenders, Consortia and Investors on several complex infrastructure projects in Ontario.

Darren specializes in providing proactive advice to Clients in the corporate occupier, education, health, long-term care, high tech and manufacturing, residential and sports, leisure and hospitality sectors.

He is a member of the RICS Canada Board, a member of the RICS Americas World Regional Board and was part of the RICS Global Professional Statement in Cost Prediction working group with publication of the Professional Statement in Q4 2020.

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