Why there is no honest single rate

Ask around and you will hear a rate per square foot. It is a convenient number, but in civil works the cost of a building follows its structural design, and no two designs are the same. Two buildings with the same covered area can need very different amounts of concrete and steel.

What actually drives the cost:

• The loads the building must carry, which depend on what it is used for: a home, an office, a warehouse or a factory floor with heavy machinery.
• Floors and spans. More storeys and wider column-free spaces need deeper beams, larger columns and more steel.
• The soil. Weak or wet ground can call for deeper or wider foundations.
• Seismic requirements, which are set by the Building Code of Pakistan and differ from city to city.
• Concrete strength. A design that calls for 4,000 psi concrete uses more cement than one at 3,000 psi.
• The structural system: a reinforced concrete frame, a load-bearing structure or a steel structure, and whether there is a basement.
• The services: electrical, plumbing, fire safety and air conditioning, which vary widely from one building to the next.

That is why we price every project from a bill of quantities (BOQ) prepared from its design, never from a guessed rate, and why we never compromise the engineering to make a number look smaller.

The right order of work

1. The brief: what the building is for, its size and your budget.
2. Architectural design.
3. A soil investigation before the foundations are designed.
4. Structural design by a qualified structural engineer, to the Building Code of Pakistan.
5. Electrical, plumbing and other services design, coordinated with the structure.
6. Approvals from the relevant authority or society.
7. The BOQ and specifications, prepared from the approved drawings.
8. Quotes compared item by item against the same BOQ.
9. A written contract that names the BOQ, the specifications and the drawings.
10. Construction, with quality control at every stage.

Skipping steps rarely saves money. Most overruns begin with decisions made on site because the design was not finished.

Why a BOQ protects you

A BOQ lists every item of work, its measured quantity and its rate: so many cubic feet of concrete, so many tonnes of steel, so many bricks. A single rate per square foot hides what is included and what is not. With a BOQ you can compare contractors line by line, see exactly what you are paying for, and pay for work as it is measured on site.

The practices that protect your building

• Check the contractor’s licence. Construction firms in Pakistan are licensed by the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) in categories that set the size of work they may take on. Ask for the licence and its category.
• Specify the materials in writing: the steel grade, the cement type and brand, and the class of bricks. Ask for mill certificates for steel.
• Test the concrete. Slump tests on site, and cube or cylinder tests at 7 and 28 days, show whether the concrete reached the strength the design asked for.
• Inspect before every pour. Steel, cover and formwork are checked against the drawings before concrete goes in, because nothing can be checked once it is covered.
• Cure properly. Concrete keeps gaining strength only while it is kept wet, so curing is part of the structure, not an afterthought.
• Pay against measured work, stage by stage, rather than large sums upfront.
• Put every change in writing, with its cost agreed before the work is done.
• Agree how price changes are handled. Steel and cement move during a project; a clear price-adjustment clause avoids disputes later.
• Keep the records: test results, inspection sheets and as-built drawings belong to you at handover.

This is how we work on every project under The Tekton Standard.

Material prices this month

Prices in October 2026. They move often, so treat them as a guide and confirm on the day you buy.

Material	Price, October 2026	What moves it
Cement, 50 kg bag	Rs 1,630 in Lahore, Rs 1,611 in Islamabad, Rs 1,600 in Peshawar, Rs 1,476 in Karachi (official weekly averages)	Coal, fuel and transport costs
Steel, Grade 60	About Rs 255 to 277 per kg, from dealer rates to mill list price	Scrap prices, electricity tariffs and the rupee
Bricks, first class	About Rs 25 per brick (Rs 25,000 per 1,000)	The season: bricks get dearer as winter sets in
Sand and crush	Varies by source and distance	Where it comes from and the cost of carriage
Diesel	About Rs 397 per litre in mid-October	Oil prices and taxes

Why diesel matters. Every truck of sand, crush, bricks and steel, and every excavator and concrete mixer on site, runs on diesel. In 2026 it rose from about Rs 257 a litre in January to a record above Rs 520 in April, and stood near Rs 397 in mid-October. When diesel moves, the cost of carriage and machinery moves with it.

Sand and crush are priced per load, and carriage is a large part of the price: it depends on where they come from and how far they travel to your site. That is why the same material costs differently from one city to the next, and even from one side of a city to the other.

Frequently asked questions

What is the cost of construction per square foot in Pakistan?

There is no honest single figure. The cost depends on the structural design: the loads, spans, soil, concrete strength and steel the building needs. Any rate quoted without a design is a guess; a BOQ prepared from the drawings is the only reliable number.

Why do construction prices change so often?

Cement, steel and bricks follow fuel, electricity and exchange rates, and the season. Diesel alone affects the cost of carrying every material to site and running every machine.

How do I compare two contractors’ quotes?

Give both the same drawings, specifications and BOQ, then compare them item by item. The cheaper quote is often cheaper because something has been left out.

Cement prices are Pakistan Bureau of Statistics averages for the week ending 8 October 2026. Steel and diesel prices are published rates from mid-October 2026. Brick prices are our current buying rate in Lahore. We update these figures every month.