How do your project costs compare to your peers?

By Colin Wood

4 November 2025

Every client wants to know whether they’re getting good value. But unless you know what your peers are paying, it’s hard to tell. That’s where benchmarking comes in.

Benchmarking isn’t just about collecting numbers. It’s about understanding where your project sits in the market:

  • Are you overpaying for design ambition?
  • Are your specs lean or premium?
  • Is your cost per sqft in line with similar schemes – or drifting above?

At EthosEQ, we use benchmarking to help clients see where they stand before they commit.

Seeing the full picture

Pretty much every client we work with at the moment is under budget pressure – balancing budget, brand, and speed. Benchmarking gives you the context to make confident decisions.

Here’s how we do it:

  1. Find your peer group: We compare against projects of similar size, sector, and ambition. A tech HQ in Berlin looks very different to a legal fit-out in Midtown – and the data should reflect that.
  2. Adjust for time and place: Inflation and location matter. We normalise all costs for date and geography using BCIS indices and live market feedback.
  3. Align for spec: A high-end boardroom finish can shift a cost by £50/sqft or more. We calibrate for spec so you’re comparing like-for-like.
  4. Strip out the abnormals: Every project has quirks – landlord constraints, phasing, listed building works. We remove these so you’re not comparing outliers.
  5. Overlay live market data: Benchmarks are only useful if they reflect today’s reality. We constantly update using current tender feedback.

Why it matters

When you can see where your project sits against the market, you gain control:

  • You know if your budget is realistic
  • You can challenge costs with confidence
  • You can communicate clearly with the board and other stakeholders
  • And you can demonstrate governance backed by data, not instinct

In short: benchmarking helps you see what “good” looks like in your market – and gives you the tools to aim for it.

We call it evidence-based cost confidence.

If you would like a copy of our benchmarking guide, email us at info@ethoseq.co.uk, or send us a DM.

Tags: Cost Benchmarking

Colin Wood

Colin is a Partner & Managing Director of EthosEQ, a cost consultancy that helps occupiers, developers, and landlords across EMEA deliver high-quality, efficient, and brand-aligned spaces — while saving time and money. With 25 years of experience at leading global consultancies, Colin has worked with blue-chip clients to deliver over 5 million sq ft of office space in the past decade alone. Today, he leads a boutique, director-led firm that brings big consultancy expertise straight to clients — with more focus, flexibility, and care.