South-east Queensland will suffer the country’s highest building cost inflation for the next four years, even as the residential sector weakens, as a large volume of public projects increases the demands on an already constrained labour force, new RLB forecasts reveal.

Tender price growth will leap 10.5 per cent on the Gold Coast this year. This is nearly double the 5.6 per cent of Perth, the second-hardest hit, and a leap up from the 7 per cent figure in the consultancy’s last estimate just six months ago.