The types of contractor
The main contractor
The main contractor takes responsibility for the complete delivery of a building to the client. It may command some trades in house and subcontract the rest. It is the client's single interlocutor for the whole of the works.
| Advantages | A single interlocutor, coordination assured by the contractor, the overall risk transferred, a better-controlled programme. |
|---|---|
| Drawbacks | Generally dearer than separate packages, since the contractor takes a margin on its subcontractors; and less client control over who actually does the work. |
Specialist trades
Where the work is let in separate packages, each firm is directly bound to the client by its own contract. The design team provides the technical coordination. This route is generally cheaper than a main contractor but demands an active and competent design team.
Craft firms
Craft firms, with ten employees or fewer, represent 60 % of building firms by number. They work mainly on renovation, maintenance and small new-build projects. Their cost structure is lighter, with few overheads, but their production capacity is limited.
The economics of pricing
To understand why a firm offers a given price, one must understand how it builds it. The fundamental equation reads:
ℹ Selling price = net cost + site overheads + operation costs + head office overheads + risk and profit
ℹ = the selling price coefficient × the net cost
| Net cost | Direct production costs: materials including waste and delivery; productive labour, gross wages plus contributions, that is the hourly cost times the productive time; and plant. |
|---|---|
| Site overheads | Site set-up, crane, cabins, supervisory staff. Variable: 6–18 % of net cost according to the type of work. |
| Head office overheads | The head office costs, not attributable to a specific site. Around 8–12 % of the selling price. |
| Risk and profit | A provision for risk plus the profit expected. Set by the management according to its needs and competitive pressure. Typically 6–10 % of the selling price; in a tight market it can fall to 3–4 %. |
The selling price coefficient is the multiplier the firm applies to its net costs to obtain its selling price. Its value depends on the proportions of the other elements. A coefficient of 1.30 means that for 100 € of net cost the firm invoices 130 € excluding VAT.
The real hourly cost of labour
The hourly labour cost is the key figure in pricing. It is not the collective agreement wage.
ℹ Hourly labour cost = annual net labour expenditure / annual productive hours
Where the annual expenditure is total gross wages plus employer social contributions, 40–45 % of gross. Productive hours are those actually spent producing, excluding unproductive time, meetings, travel between sites. A worker present 229 days a year at seven hours a day gives 1,603 hours of presence but only about 1,566 hours of productive time.
| Grade | Hourly cost |
|---|---|
| Labourer | 20–23 €/h |
| Skilled operative | 22–26 €/h |
| Qualified tradesperson | 25–30 €/h |
| Team leader | 28–35 €/h |
These values include gross wages plus employer contributions. They vary with the collective agreement, the region, the Paris region adds 10–15 %, travel allowances and the level of overtime.
The full cycle of an operation
| Preparing the offer | The estimator reads the tender package, carries out the measurement, calculates the price build-ups, estimates the site and operation costs, and applies the coefficient to obtain the unit rates. Duration: a week to several weeks according to the size of the project. |
|---|---|
| Signing the contract | Possible negotiation of the price with the client. Note: the contract sum must never fall below the cost of production including overheads. |
| The site budget | The contracts manager turns the offer into an operational budget: quantities ordered, an hours allowance per item, a procurement programme. |
| Financial monitoring during construction | A monthly comparison of real expenditure, materials, hours, plant, against the budget. Early detection of drift item by item. |
| The analytical account afterwards | Calculating the margin, the gross result and the real risk outcome. Updating the pricing data, hourly cost, elementary quantities, waste factors, for the next offers. |
Main contractor or separate packages: the criteria
| Complexity | The more complex the project, with numerous interfaces and a tight programme, the more relevant a main contractor is for controlling coordination. |
|---|---|
| Size | Large projects above 10 M€ more easily find capable main contractors. Intermediate projects of 1–5 M€ suit separate packages well. |
| The client's resources | A client with an active design team and a rigorous site coordinator can manage separate packages. A client without internal resources will choose a main contractor. |
| Price | In a market with good competition, separate packages are 5–15 % cheaper. In an overheated market the gap narrows or reverses. |
The structure of the sector
| Total turnover | 208 billion € of building works excluding tax on the domestic market in 2024, of which 90 in new build and 118 in improvement and maintenance. Civil engineering adds around 53 billion €. |
|---|---|
| Number of firms | 440,000 building firms, of which 412,500 are craft-sized |
| Small firms | 412,500 craft-sized firms out of 440,000, that is 94 % |
| Large groups | The major construction groups: under 5 % of firms, around 40 % of turnover |
| Employment | 1,258,000 employees including apprentices, and 1,749,000 working in total with 396,000 self-employed and 95,000 agency workers in full-time equivalent |
Related articles: The client's role · The architect's role in a construction project · The economic parties in construction
Cost estimates, pricing schedules, development appraisals, summary notes. Produce in minutes the deliverables you prepare manually today. First project free. → quostra.com
The economic data comes from the building federation's 2024 figures published in June 2025 and from the civil engineering federation's statistics. The pricing formulas come from Widloecher and Cusant, Manuel de l'étude de prix, Eyrolles, 5th ed. 2020.
The nature of the figures quoted
The percentages and amounts quoted on this page are orders of magnitude for framing, not measurements. They illustrate mechanisms and proportions, and they substitute neither for a tender exercise nor for an estimate prepared on drawings.
Sources: the BT construction cost indices published monthly by INSEE on its 2010 base, used to update the figures · construction cost statistics from SDES, the statistical service of the ministry responsible for construction · regulatory texts published in the Journal officiel and consolidated on Légifrance for the requirements cited.