The World’s Most Expensive City For Construction

Proximity to Asian hubs and a stable power grid are further factors counting in its favor. Tokyo’s construction cost now averages $4,002 per square meter, a figure that is based on the average cost across four different types of buildings.

Hong Kong comes second in the ranking with $3,894 per square meter, with San Francisco and New York following. All three of those cities have historically sat within the top ten positions in the ranking.

The growing cost of construction in Tokyo has been reflected in the Olympics’ price tag which was initially put at $7.3 billion in 2013 before being revised upwards to $12.6 billion in late 2019, just before the event was postponed due to Covid-19.

The final cost was estimated by financial newspapers Nikkei and Asahi to be in the region of $28 billion.

Infographic: Tokyo Is The World's Most Expensive City For Construction | Statista