If you are pricing a build in 2026, the number that matters is not the headline rate per square metre. It is what the bill of quantities underneath it is doing month to month. Materials are roughly 55% to 60% of a typical residential build cost, and over the past twelve months they have climbed at a pace that comfortably outruns CPI. This is the cost tracker: every major material we follow, the latest May 2026 price, and the twelve-month move that tells you where the squeeze is coming from.
These are the same numbers that feed our cost estimator and sit behind the national cost pillar. Prices below are a May 2026 snapshot; the live materials tracker updates monthly.
The 2026 price table
| Material | Unit | May 2026 price | 12-month change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cement (PPC 42.5N) | R / 50kg bag | R 129 | +14.2% |
| Clay brick (NFP) | R / 1000 | R 3 740 | +8.4% |
| Reinforcing steel (Y12) | R / tonne | R 19 750 | +4.5% |
| SA pine (38x114, grade 5) | R / m | R 48 | +11.6% |
| Concrete roof tile (Marley Modern) | R / tile | R 21 | +16.6% |
| Ceramic floor tile (mid-range) | R / m² | R 219 | +12.3% |
| Plascon Premium PVA | R / 20L | R 2 375 | +10.4% |
| Diesel (50ppm wholesale) | R / litre | R 23.60 | +5.2% |
Sources: Cement Industry Reporting; CMA brick price index; SAISC steel tracker; SAWPA timber merchants; Marley published price list; BUCO / Cashbuild; Plascon trade price; DMRE basic fuel price.
The story in one line: the structural shell and the roof are inflating hardest, steel is the rare line holding steady, and diesel is quietly feeding into every delivery you pay for.
What is driving each move
Cement, up 14.2%
PPC 42.5N moved from R 113 to R 129 per 50kg bag over the year. Cement is the second-fastest mover on the table and one of the most painful, because it touches nearly every stage of a build: foundations, brick mortar, plaster, screeds and surface beds. The pass-through here is energy and logistics. Cement kilns are heavily electricity- and fuel-exposed, and the 2025 NERSA tariff round is still working through producer pricing. There is no sign of this line cooling before the back half of 2026.
Concrete roof tiles, up 16.6%
The biggest single mover on the board. The Marley Modern concrete tile went from R 18 to R 21 each. Tile-making is electricity-intensive, and producers have passed the 2025 tariff increases through in three separate list adjustments. Imported clay alternatives have tracked upward in sympathy rather than offering relief. If your roof spec runs to twelve or thirteen thousand tiles, that 16.6% is real money, and it lands in one concentrated stage.
Ceramic floor tiles, up 12.3%
Mid-range ceramic floor tile sits at R 219 per square metre, up from R 195. A mix of imported product exposed to the rand and energy-intensive local firing keeps this line above 12%. Finishes inflation like this is easy to underestimate at quote stage because it lands late, long after the contract price was struck.
SA pine, up 11.6%
Structural pine (38x114, grade 5) reached R 48 per metre. Timber pricing has been firm on the back of steady demand and constrained merchant supply through SAWPA channels. For roof carpentry and shuttering, this is a meaningful double-digit creep that few homeowners watch closely.
Paint, up 10.4%
Plascon Premium PVA is now R 2 375 per 20L. The cited drivers are titanium dioxide and binder pass-through, with the major brands all raising prices at least twice in the year. Paint is a finishes line, so it is one of the easier ones to value-engineer without compromising structure if the budget runs tight.
Clay brick, up 8.4%
NFP clay brick reached R 3 740 per 1000. Brick has been one of the steadier structural lines, but at 8.4% it is still running ahead of CPI. Kiln fuel and freight are the usual suspects. Because brick is bulky and heavy, the delivered price is where diesel inflation shows up most visibly.
Diesel, up 5.2%
Wholesale 50ppm diesel sits at R 23.60 per litre. Diesel rarely appears as a line in a homeowner's BOQ, but it is embedded in every other number on this page. It moves brick, sand, stone, cement and steel to site, and it runs the plant once they arrive. A 5.2% move here quietly lifts the delivered cost of everything heavy.
Reinforcing steel, up 4.5%
The one piece of good news. Y12 rebar is R 19 750 per tonne, up just 4.5% over the year, and the SAISC tracker actually shows it dipping mid-cycle before firming again. Steel was the line that broke in 2023; it has since settled into a far calmer band. Watch for an infrastructure-led lift later in 2026, but for now there is no advantage to bulk-buying ahead of need.
Which materials weigh most in your budget
A twelve percent rise on a line that is 2% of your build is noise. The same rise on a line that is 15% of your build is a problem. The materials that matter most by budget weight are:
- Cement and concrete (structural): present at foundations, brickwork, plaster and screeds. High volume, and at +14.2% the single most influential inflation line in 2026.
- Brick and block: the bulk of the superstructure. Steady at +8.4%, but the largest single material volume on most sites.
- Roof tiles and timber: concentrated in one stage but inflating hardest combined (+16.6% and +11.6%). The roof is where 2026 is hurting most.
- Finishes (tiles and paint): lower volume but firmly double-digit, and they land late, after the contract price is fixed.
- Steel: important to budget, but the calm line this year at +4.5%.
The lesson is that the heat in 2026 is concentrated in the structural shell and the roof, the stages you pay for early and cannot defer. Finishes are inflating too, but those are the lines where you have room to substitute.
Trade versus retail pricing
The prices in the table above are a blend that leans toward trade and merchant pricing, which is what your contractor actually pays. As a homeowner walking into a retail outlet, expect to pay more, often 10% to 25% more on the same item, because trade accounts carry volume discounts, account terms and rebates you do not have.
This matters in two practical ways. First, do not benchmark your builder's BOQ against the retail shelf price and assume you are being overcharged; the builder is buying on trade terms and the gap is normal. Second, where a contract lets you supply certain items yourself (often tiles, sanitaryware and PC items), remember you will likely be buying at retail, so the apparent saving can be thinner than it looks. Trade pricing is one of the genuine values a competent main contractor brings.
How to lock prices and time your purchases
Material inflation rewards homeowners who plan procurement around the data rather than the build programme alone.
- Demand 90-day quote validity on any line moving more than 10% year on year. On this table that is cement, roof tiles, ceramic tiles, pine and paint. A quote that lapses gets repriced upward.
- Lock cement and roof tiles before mobilisation. These are the fastest movers and they land early. Order them against the stage-payment schedule so the price is fixed before the increase hits.
- Do not bulk-buy steel. At +4.5% there is no inflation advantage to tying up cash early, and rebar stored on site is exposed to weather and theft. Procure it progressively.
- Push for limited escalation in the contract. JBCC contracts carry standard escalation clauses. For materials moving above 10%, agree a capped escalation formula up front rather than absorbing open-ended increases or padding the contingency blind.
- Buy finishes early only if storage is secure. Tiles and paint are inflating, but they are vulnerable to damage and shrinkage on site. Lock the price with a supplier deposit rather than taking early delivery where you can.
For the full month-by-month picture and the latest figures as they land, work from the live materials tracker rather than a static table.
Why material inflation compounds on a long build
Here is the part most homeowners miss. The headline construction-inflation rate, running at around 9.4% as of the April 2026 cost index, is well above CPI of roughly 4.6%. But a single annual figure understates the pain on a project that runs across many months.
A standard residential build is a roughly 34-week programme, and most homeowners spend nine to fifteen months from the day they price the job to the day they pay the final account. Over that window, the materials you buy in month twelve cost materially more than the figure that anchored your budget in month one. If cement is climbing at 14.2% a year, the bags you order for the screeds and plaster late in the build are not the price you used to plan the foundations.
This is why two safeguards are non-negotiable. Carry a real contingency, the industry default of 10% exists precisely because input costs drift upward across a long build. And fix as much of the price as you can early, through quote validity, escalation caps and pre-orders on the fastest-moving lines. A build that overruns by six months in a 9% to 14% inflation environment is not just late; it is more expensive every week it runs.
The bottom line
The shape of 2026 is clear. The roof and the structural shell are where the inflation is concentrated, cement and roof tiles lead the table, steel is the one line offering relief, and diesel sits underneath every delivered price you pay. Plan your procurement around the fast movers, lock what you can before mobilisation, and keep your contingency intact.
These figures are a May 2026 snapshot. Prices move monthly, so before you commit numbers to a contract, check them against the live materials tracker, run your project through our cost estimator, and read the national cost pillar for how these inputs roll up into a total build cost.