“How can Civil Construction industry companies prove that their investments have a good ROI?” If this question has crossed your mind, know that the answer is not as simple as you think. 

It goes far beyond adding up costs and pointing out profit. It is being able to clearly show where the money was placed and what actually came back. 

The ideal scenario is to be able to better measure construction efficiency and see the job site with more precision to create lasting financial value. See what to do!

ROI: the percentage that reveals the return on the project

ROI is a way to measure how much an investment actually generates in return. In practice, it takes the company's operating profit (EBIT) and divides it by everything invested in the business, summing both equity and resources from third parties (debt). 

The result appears as a percentage: the higher this number, the greater the gain relative to the capital applied to achieve the results.

And the ROI formula is as follows:

• Read more: The ROI of Truth: Quantifying the Impact of Reality Capture

For example, if a construction company invests R$ 100,000 in a project and gets R$ 150,000 from the sale, the ROI will be 50%. In other words, for every real invested, there was 50 cents of profit.

Steps to prove investment return on construction projects

1. Detailed cost tracking:

Compile all direct and indirect project costs, without leaving any expenses out. Here, a sensitive point comes in: many costs "disappear" because what happens at the job site does not reach the office in its entirety. 

 The use of technologies like Visi allows capturing the reality [link] of the project through 360° images connected to the project blueprint, organized by date and location.  to have the reality capture of the construction in 360°, organized by blueprint, environment, and date. 

This helps to identify rework, waste, and extra interventions that often do not show up on the spreadsheet but directly impact the ROI. 

The image stops being just a record and becomes evidence to link the actual cost to what, in fact, happened in the field.

2. Clear determination of revenue:

Present the revenue obtained, whether from property sales, rent, savings generated by renovations, or other sources of income associated with the project.

Reality capture also supports this stage: a well-documented visual history by Visi reinforces quality deliveries, proves the promised construction standard, and contributes to justifying prices, perceived value, and even the asset's appreciation to investors or buyers.

3. Schedule analysis:

Evaluate the time it took to get the return, as a high long-term ROI may be less advantageous than a moderate short-term ROI.

With Visi, each capture becomes a milestone in time. It is possible to show, with images, when each stage progressed and whether the physical schedule accompanied the financial schedule. 

This makes it much easier to relate delay, acceleration, or scope changes with a direct impact on timeline and return.

• Read more: Physical-financial construction schedule: what it is and how to create it

4. Comparison with industry benchmarks:

Placing the project's ROI in relation to the market average helps to demonstrate efficiency or indicate if the investment was competitive.

5. Presentation of intangible benefits

In addition to direct financial gain, highlight productivity improvements, property qualification, reduction of future costs, or positive impacts on the builder's image.

This is precisely where reality capture with Visi helps: it shows productivity gains, execution standardization, reduction of conflicts with clients, and transparency in monitoring construction progress. 

All of this strengthens the perception of the construction company's value, even if it does not directly enter the ROI formula, but it influences future sales, repurchases, and investor confidence.

FAQ: People also ask

What is the ideal ROI rate?

There is no single number, because it depends on the type of construction, risk, and market scenario. In general, real estate developments aim for something around 15% to 30%, while more stable projects (such as corporate or public contracts) tend to work with lower, yet more predictable, percentages.

Don't defend ROI with spreadsheets: show the truth of the project with Visi! 

Visi records the project in 360° images, organized by environment and date, as if you were walking through the site without leaving the office. Compare it with BIM and count on various features, such as: Photographic Reports, Daily Work Reports (DWRs), Non-Compliance Reports, among others. 

And more! With aerial 360° images and drone mapping, the platform offers a complete and continuous view of the construction site, ideal for monitoring large areas.

In the end, we guarantee a visual timeline of the entire construction that is easy to relate to cost, timeline, and return.

If you want to talk about ROI looking at reality,  schedule a demo of Visi and see this running in practice.