Balance between financial and quality gains in housing production : A study on concrete and wooden frames

Abstract: With increased demand for housing in Sweden's metropolitan regions, it is of greatimportance to meet the need and build more. The supply of housing is governed byaccess to land and what it costs to build apartment houses. In Sweden, there is ahistory of cartel formation of contractors and at the turn of the millennium, thegovernment invested funds to create increased price transparency in theconstruction sector. Based on this, the purpose of this project is to investigate how itis possible to today produce housing more economically, while maintaining quality.The study is limited to the purchase of prefabricated hollow core and load-bearingwall elements in both concrete and wood. The goal is to be able to compare prices ofthese construction parts between Swedish and foreign suppliers. The foreignsuppliers are limited to the ones operating in the Baltic countries and Poland. Thus, itmust be investigated which of the wooden or concrete frames is most economicallyprofitable, what opportunities there are with international purchases of frameelements and what should be taken into account in international purchases.