As China’s construction labour costs rise, Chinese homeowners are increasingly finding it more value for their money to use higher-end building materials. More homeowners – especially the wealthier ones – are embracing higher-quality building materials that are easier to install, such as premium plasterboards, and shunning the traditional bricks and mortar. “I was surprised to receive the renovation firms’ quotations as the labour costs had more than doubled from a decade ago when I renovated my first home,” said Shanghai homeowner Li Minghui. “It doesn’t make sense for me to pay so much more for a similar kind of décor using the same materials.” Li, a middle-level manager with a state-owned service firm, said she opted instead to fork out thousands of yuan more to use higher-end building materials as her family could now better afford the expense. In Shanghai, a homeowner typically spends at least 100,000 yuan (HK$127,000) renovating a new apartment. China’s growing economy and its people’s increasing wealth have spurred multinational building-material productmakers such as USG Boral to speed up their expansion on the mainland. A joint venture between Australia’s biggest building-materials group Boral and America’s largest plasterboard manufacturer USG, USG Boral is a global leader in producing building materials. It makes and supplies gypsum-based walls, ceiling-lining systems and metal frames, among other materials. Although high-end plasterboards cost more than twice the price of average materials, USG Boral’s China director Gregory Lukasik says it is “40 per cent faster to install than a brick wall”. “Labour costs matter a lot in the traditional method,” Lukasik said. Such plasterboards are not only strong and lightweight, but also absorb sound better than normal walls and are consistent in quality, he said. Lukasik said the company recently introduced a premium brand to China after Chinese builders and contractors conveyed homeowners’ demand for a “revolutionary, easy-to-use, high-end plasterboard”. “The best innovations start with a purpose – a focus on why the innovation is needed and who will benefit from it,” said Frederic de Rougemount, chief executive of USG Boral’s building product businesses. “USG Boral listened, learned and delivered.” The company is cultivating the Chinese market to use more quality building materials while working to gain a larger share of the market to maximise its returns. “In China, the competition is the most intense,” Lukasik said. ‘The biggest challenge is to try to guarantee high returns on our asset investments.” But it has reason for optimism as more wealthy mainlanders are increasingly opting for such higher-end materials that are deemed more value for money than traditional ones. “Property prices have soared more than 10 times in the past decade,” Li, the Shanghai homeowner, said. “For a 3 million yuan apartment, spending say 20,000 yuan more on renovation and décor materials works out to just a small proportion of the total investment. It’s worth it to choose to use top-quality products.”