The Construction Industry: Disruption on the Horizon

Given the global escalation in construction costs, there is a desperate need to find efficiencies and make development feasible to match growing housing demand in prime markets. Since the issue is not location specific, but a recurring theme in almost 50 of the worlds most desirable cities, there is a noticeable vacuum in innovative methods and products that can alleviate the astronomical cost burden that has no end in sight.Enter Amazon, the real-world version of the Tyrell Corporation. Amazon has injected $6.

7m in Plant Prefab through their Alexa Fund.Why is this important?Prefabricated homes allow the majority of building systems to be pre-assembled off site. Imagine youre building a Lego house, and rather than assembling all the 100 blocks, the blocks come preassembled. It saves a considerable amount of time and coordination, reduces errors, and makes things tremendously more efficient.A University of Utah study reports that modular construction processes result in an average of 16% cost savings and 39% savings in time. When considering a development proforma, these savings are passed directly to the consumer, allowing end units to be rented or sold for considerably less and still maintain a reasonable development yield.

What will happen to all the disruption of jobs from the skilled and unskilled labour? We will have to wait and see.Until recently, prefabrication of homes was reserved for more pedestrian housing. With startups like Plant Prefab, were moving into a more advanced, luxury style of prefabrication.

Watch for this as for-sale product coming to a city near you

·RELATED QUESTION

how do modular homes hold up over time?

For the most part factory built homes, modular, are as good and may be better that site built "stick" homes. Both will last forever if maintained. Being factory built inside a building saves the home from weather damage during construction. The saws and other equipment used to cut and fit the home are better and more accurate in a modular home than a guy cutting a board over a saw hourse in a stick home.