Affordability of quantity surveying services on construction projects in South Africa*

Abstract

English: surveyors to offer reduced professional fees on construction projects due to the competitiveness of the market. This reduction in fees offered by professionals usually falls somewhere between the recommended fees as published by the Association of South African Quantity Surveyors and a fee that is far below a fair remuneration for the services offered. Research was done by means of questionnaires to practicing quantity sur veyors, as well as analysing time spent on projects in order to determine how affordable professional services can be rendered and what the most influ encing factors for determining fees are. The current Tariff of Professional fees was also scrutinised to see how it evolved over the years, as it is still used as a basis to calculate the fees on which a discount is offered. The main findings of the research were that quantity surveying services can be rendered affordable, but the quantity surveyor is more exposed to the risk of not being able to render the service affordable on certain projects types and the risk further increases with a decrease in project value.

Afrikaans: naars, as gevolg van die kompeterende aard van die bedryf, verlaagde gelde aanbied op konstruksieprojekte waarby hulle betrokke is. Sodanige verlaagde gelde wat aangebied word val êrens tussen die aanbevole geldetarief wat deur die Vereniging van SuidAfrikaanse Bourekenaars gepubliseer word en gelde wat ver minder is as gelde wat beskou kan word as ‘n regverdige ver goeding vir dienste wat gelewer word. Navorsing is gedoen deur middel van vraelyste aan praktiserende bourekenaars sowel as deur die tyd wat op projekte spandeer is te analiseer. Dit is gedoen ten einde te bepaal hoe bekostigbaar professionele dienste gelewer kan word asook wat die faktore is wat wat sodanige bekostigbaarheid bëinvloed. Die huidige Professionele Geldetarief is ook nagegaan om te sien hoe dit deur die jare aangepas is aangesien dit steeds gebruik word as basis waarvolgens gelde bereken word waarop afslag gegee word. Die belangrikste bevindinge van die navorsing was dat bourekenaarsdienste wel bekostigbaar gelewer kan word, maar dat die bourekenaar meer bloot gestel word aan risiko op sekere projekte om nie ’n bekostigbare diens te lewer nie en dat die risiko verder vergroot met ’n afname in die waarde van die projek.