The prefabricated industry associates to help with Kiwibuild

Just over 100 prefab manufacturers asked Kiwibuild to participate in the government housing program.

Housing Minister Phil Twyford said that the "KiwiBuild" unit of the new agency for housing and urban development had received 102 responses to his invitation to be presented by "outside manufacturers", as are builders of prefabricated houses.

The land is designed to help accelerate Kiwibuild, the government's plan to build 100,000 homes in a decade.

But for the prefabricated housing sector, it is also essential to give certainty to the industry so that it can expand.

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Among those who applied to participate in the Kiwibuild process were foreign manufacturers and the New Zealand Superannuation Fund.

The fund is not involved in offsite manufacturing yet but "we are interested in exploring investment opportunities in the development of large scale housing infrastructure and in modular housing / prefabricated, "said a spokeswoman. Other details were commercially sensitive.

Avoiding weather delays by working under cover and coordinating the purchase of materials can save $ 40,000 on the cost of a standard home, according to estimates.

A 2014 report from Prefab NZ showed that a "coordinated acquisition and production" could save $ 25,000 on construction costs and that an actual purchase of materials would help to reduce the cost of construction. save an additional $ 15,000.

"For a single small to medium sized construction project, we can expect a 60% reduction in the time of the construction program and a 9.3% cost reduction."

Twyford said that there was "a real opportunity" to leverage the government's buying power and the certainty of KiwiBuild's goals to make the prefab industry more innovative and more engaged in the New Zealand market.

"KiwiBuild is not just about solving the housing crisis and restoring the kiwi dream of home ownership for young families.

"It's also about transforming the way we build houses to reduce construction costs, ensure consistently high quality design, increase the capacity of the construction sector and enable homes to be completed more quickly. "

But it will take some time for the prefab sector to get ready, and in the meantime, Kiwibuild will continue to work with startup homes, making land available for development and integrating affordable housing into major existing housing projects. did he declare.

Prefab New Zealand's director, Pamela Bell, said most new homes had at least some components that had been built off-site, which was essentially what prefabrication was.

But many people still thought that prefabricated housing was temporary – a vision that she said would change if people could see what was possible.

"There are always historical misperceptions about what is the prefab, what that means."