Flat-pack houses set to provide affordable housing
LONDON: Flat-pack housing is set to answer the affordability issue for all generations said the owner of one manufacturer.
Bunnings Trade has sold more than 50 flat-pack homes in New Zealand in the last year, with two-bedroom 60sq m models selling from $69,000, the company says.
The business is marketing its flat-pack homes under a brand it owns, Clever Living Co., advertised as “homes that move to you.”
A Bunnings spokesperson at the chain’s Melbourne headquarters said: “Locations where Clever Living Co. homes have been built are in Northland, Auckland, the Waikato, Taranaki, exported to Rarotonga, Palmerston North, Gisborne, Hawkes Bay, the Bay of Plenty, Tauranga, Wellington, Central Otago, central South Island, Otago.”
Prices include $69,131 plus GST for a two-bedroom 60sq m home through to $113,541 plus GST for the four-bedroom 106sq m not including land or services such as power, stormwater and water.
Bunnings said it spent two years preparing to launch the product.
“Bunnings has partnered with licensed building practitioners to develop the range and is seeing a diversity of demand throughout regional and urban communities, from farmers to retirees to first home buyers,” the business said.
Des Bickerton, Bunnings’ New Zealand commercial manager, said demand had grown in the year since the launch.
“A lack of quality and affordable housing options has seen the Clever Living Co. range be really well received as an affordable option,” he said.
“With our partners, we have developed a number of different design packages with the Angus three-bedroom, two-bathroom 96sq m design being the most popular, particularly among retirees and first home buyers with young children,” Bickerton said.
“We did a lot of homework. The early result is encouraging and as we get more feedback from customers and our builder partners, we expect to make a few subtle changes over the coming years to improve the offer,” he said.
The products are designed and built off-site and trucked to sites or delivered as packages that are built onsite by a registered builder, Bunning said.
Included in the packages are appliances, the kitchen, light fittings, bathroom, timber frames, roofing and other building materials.
Foor coverings and and onsite services like water and power are excluded.
All house designs include a living room, dining room, kitchen and bathroom, Bunnings said.
Last March, The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment issued a national multiple-use approval to Bunnings Ltd, trading as Clever Living Co for its Suffolk design, one-level, two-bedroom 83sq m transportable dwelling.
Simon Hinds of Hinds Builders at Waikanae on the Kapiti Coast said he had built about 20 Clever Living Co. homes in the last year “for the Wairarapa, Kapiti Coast and eight in Wellington.” Many went into Wainuiomata, he said. All are built in his yard, then transported to sites and arrive in packs with floors, frames and trusses, exterior cladding and internal wall linings.
He plans to build another 22 Clever Living Co. homes: “I’m impressed. I would not be doing them if I didn’t believe in it. It’s actually a really good system and a one-stop-shop. The whole package is all done so we know where the stuff is going to be like with the windows, etc.”
Homes took around 10 weeks to build in the yard “start to finish, all painted and ready to go, kitchens in and bathrooms in and carpet ready to go down.”
“The most popular model was the Angus,” he said of a 101sq m home he is selling to clients for around $220,000.
Although he is not involved in the full house-and-land package sale, he estimated Angus homes on sites were selling for around $400,000-plus in his region.
Clever Living Co. say all homes come with Mitsubishi heat pumps, Kaboodle kitchens, Blanco appliances, Stein showers, vanities and toilets and Sengled security cameras and lighting.
Frames are built of laminated veneer lumber.
The business markets its smallest home as a two-bedroom 37.5sq m Merino but that series comes in larger sizes as well.
Oxford is 59.6sqm, Suffolk is 82.6sq m, Dexter is 101sq m, Angus is 95.8sq m and Highland is 106.4sq m.
Pamela Bell, Prefab NZ chief executive, says the sector is able to respond quickly to demand for new homes. PrefabNZ is a non-profit membership organisation aiming to inform, educate and advocate for innovation and excellence in offsite design and construction.
