BCIS Notional Rebuilding Matrix House Cost Index - RICS

House Rebuilding Cost Index
The Index
INSURANCE
NOTIONAL REBUILDING
COST MATRIX
BCIS has produced, for the ABI, the ‘House Rebuilding Cost Index’ (HRCI) to update
the residential rebuilding cost guidance between annual revisions and for use by
insurance companies in updating cover during the currency of an annual policy. It
is not intended as a substitute for the regular reassessment of properties.
The index is based on changes in the rebuilding costs for all house types included in the various
BCIS residential rebuilding cost services, resulting from changes in the input costs of labour,
materials, plant, profit, overheads and fees. The rebuilding costs are recalculated each month
(based on costs current on the third Wednesday of the month).
The index was first calculated in July 1978 and then every quarter until January 1981 when
it became available on a monthly basis. It is intended to apply to single dwellings and is not
appropriate for updating assessments of larger schemes, such as large blocks of flats, where a
tender price index is more suitable.
The index model was revised in September 1982, September 1988, January 1994, January
2000 and January 2005 to take account of the five yearly reviews of the base models for
the Guide. It is also adjusted, when appropriate, to take into account amendments to the
Building Regulations and taxation (eg Landfill Tax and VAT on fees). While there may be some
discontinuity at these points the index has been presented as a single series except that the
published index was rebased in September 1988. Initially the index was published on a base of
31st July 1978 = 100 and was rebased in 1989 to September 1988 = 100. Data on disc covered
the HRCI on the September 1988 base; earlier figures are given in Appendix A.
The reassessment of individual properties using an index is not advisable. The RICS Guidance
Note ‘Reinstatement Cost Assessment and Insurance Claims’ states that ‘Surveyors may wish
to consider that the Reinstatement Cost Assessment is undertaken from first principles every
three years or at lesser periods dependent on the circumstances’. BCIS recommends that the
results obtained by index linking should always be checked.
Format of data file
The file HRCI.csv that can be found on the BCIS
Notional Rebuilding Cost Matrix CD is a comma
delimited file containing all HRCI index figures
on the September 1988 = 100 base. The file
included column headings (DateApplicable and
IndexValue) followed by the monthly index figures.
DateApplicable is in the format yyyy-mm and
IndexValue is numeric with one decimal place.
FREE live data tests are available,
email Matthew Newsome on mnewsome@bcis.co.uk for more information
BCIS is the Building Cost Information Service of
Updates
Subscribers to the BCIS Notional Rebuilding Cost
Matrix are entitled to receive monthly updates to
the index by email. The index is calculated based
on costs current on the third Wednesday of the
month and is normally published a few days later.
Recent annual percentage changes in the index can
be found at http://www.bcis.co.uk/RebuildingCosts/
Index/rebuildingcosts.htm.

House Rebuilding Cost Index
Application to Matrix costs
INSURANCE
NOTIONAL REBUILDING
COST MATRIX
Rebuilding costs taken from the BCIS Notional Rebuilding Cost Matrix should be updated each month to
current prices using the HRCI until the next edition is available.
Costs are updated by dividing by the index for the month that the Matrix is based on and multiplying by
the latest index. The index that the Matrix is based on is stated in the Contents.txt file and is indicated
by the file name eg: if the Matrix is contained in a file called BCISMatrix2009-03.csv then the figures are
priced as at March 2009).
Example:
Rebuilding cost from Matrix at March 2009 prices = £211,000
HRCI for March 2009 = 236.6
Latest HRCI available = 237.6 (example only – substitute the latest HRCI figure)
Updated Rebuilding Cost = £211000 * 237.6 / 236.6
= £211892
Which should be rounded as appropriate (eg £212000).
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
1978 - - - - - - 100.0 - 102.1 - - 105.0
1979 - - 108.5 - - 117.9 - - 124.9 - - 126.2
1980 - - 130.7 - - 144.6 - - 143.8 - - 144.4
1981 145.9 146.2 146.8 146.8 148.4 148.8 150.3 149.3 149.3 150.2 150.8 150.9
1982 151.8 152.7 152.9 153.9 155.7 155.7 160.8 160.8 161.5 161.7 162.3 162.5
1983 163.1 163.4 164.5 165.4 165.8 166.7 169.5 169.8 170.7 171.1 170.5 170.6
1984 171.3 171.4 173.3 174.0 174.7 175.7 178.0 179.1 179.4 178.8 179.9 180.5
1985 180.6 180.9 181.1 182.3 184.9 185.0 188.9 189.7 189.7 189.6 189.6 189.7
1986 190.0 190.2 190.3 191.9 192.1 192.7 196.4 197.1 197.5 197.7 198.2 198.5
1987 199.1 202.6 203.2 204.1 204.8 204.8 209.1 209.6 210.0 210.3 210.3 211.0
1988 211.3 211.1 212.3 215.5 215.7 215.9 224.6 225.3 229.6 229.9 230.1 230.3
FREE live data tests are available,
email Matthew Newsome on mnewsome@bcis.co.uk for more information
BCIS is the Building Cost Information Service of