House Built In A Week May Solve Housing Crisis

Unless you’ve had your head in the sand for the last few years, you’ve probably heard enough about the ‘housing crisis’. Migration is the primary cause of the lack of available homes. In some countries, beneficiaries live in motels on the public purse, i.e., the government pays the accommodation bill.

The housing crisis is complex, and each nation has challenges, such as labour shortages and vacant properties, often due to money laundering. However, housing is never far from politics, and election promises to build more homes are ordinary.

Political Hot Potato

Housing is a political hot potato wherever you reside, in the UK, USA, Australia, or New Zealand. It’s a topic that can get a party elected and kicked out.

Everyone has an opinion on housing, and rightly so. Housing is one of our primary needs. We all want a house to live in and ideally call our own. Most people still aspire to own their homes as soon as possible, so there’s no shortage of ideas and feedback on fixing the housing crisis.

Build More Homes

Over the years, the answer has been to build more homes, and the political party that won the election promises to do just that, winning voters and ultimately holding the purse strings. So why is there still a housing crisis? Where are the new homes?

Home Built In A Week

Let’s build a home in a week if possible. The prominent players in the construction industry are private or publicly listed enterprises focused on profit. They build homes that yield the most profit, not the homes people need.

We’re talking about ‘McMansions’—big homes in tiny sections. Building a large house in a small section yields more profit; however, homebuyers can not afford the big footprint, nor do they need it! Most people need an affordable home, a smaller property produced with fewer stakeholders, i.e., factory-built homes.

Why Is Uptake Of Factory Homes Slow?

Over the years and in recent months, articles have been published about new players in the construction sector rolling out templated homes at much less cost to the homebuyer. So why is the uptake of sales so slow?

Custom homes stakeholders

The challenge with these prefab homes is twofold. First, some stakeholders feel threatened by this templated model and its potential business damage.

Second, the product’s reputation is stigmatized. Although building materials and techniques have significantly improved, misinformation about prefab homes is enough to cause many prospective new home buyers to avoid them.

When a home buyer is in the market for a new home, they usually go to the architect first. The architect is one of many stakeholders in the construction of new homes. The architect looks after the building design, and the engineer determines whether the design will work in the location and environment.

The other significant stakeholder is the builder who will construct the home. Other interested parties fit out the property with the kitchen and bathroom, as well as the trades like the electrician to do the wiring and the plumber to add the pipes and front-of-wall bathroom products.

However, the stakeholders mentioned above, i.e., the architects, builders, and, in some cases, engineers, are most threatened by a rise in modular and factory-built homes. Therefore, they’re not likely to recommend this type of home build, which is a reason for the slow uptake of modular buildings.

The earlier product had a poor reputation

History repeats, or even if it doesn’t, it can be used for scaremongering, hence the ease of sharing misinformation about the new prefabricated buildings and modular homes.

Fear of the unknown

There are two other likely causes for the lack of provision of these homes. One is the fear of the unknown, i.e. if the neighbour next door doesn’t have it and nor do your friends or family, then maybe it’s not right for you; this is where the five stages of technology adoption suggest who will get the new build now and who will go with it later on.

Right now, the innovators and earlier adopters will be the groundbreakers with factory-built homes, while most people will go with them when they become more popular.

Lack of skilled labour

Finally, the lack of skilled labour with the product is also preventing massive uptake. Modular homes are a technical build, and while most of them are built in the factory, they still need to be constructed on-site. Builders must know they can do so efficiently and quickly; otherwise, there’s no profit!

Summary

Government intervention can bring all stakeholders on board with the new home-build style, which can deliver a new home within a week. Maybe we need patience, but technology has now solved the housing crisis. Watch this space.