Factors Affecting the Capital Cost of Prefabrication—A Case Study of China

As a sustainable construction method, prefabrication has become popular in many nations. However, there are many challenges for prefabrication, especially in terms of cost. Previous studies have revealed that higher capital cost was the most important barrier to the implementation of prefabrication. Thus, the objective of this study is to explore and evaluate the critical factors affecting the capital cost of prefabrication and examine how cost management may be affected by the “experience”, “corporate responsibility”, and “participant function” as a fix independent factors. To achieve the research objective, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 experts for the development of the questionnaire. Then, a questionnaire survey was conducted to investigate the significance of 49 factors related to prefabrication capital cost. The survey results revealed that “Specification and standards for prefabricated building design”, “Related experience of manager”, and “Rationality of precast component split” were the most critical factors. In addition, “experience”, “corporate responsibility”, and “participant function” had significant impact on the evaluation of capital cost factors. The findings can facilitate developing a benchmark framework for exploring the factors affecting the capital cost of prefabrication in China.