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Chinese state owned construction firm signs £2.5b deal to build modular homes in UK

This could be a game changer. 1 in 6 UK houses to be factory built & obviously cost much less.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/12/19/chinese-state-owned-construction-firm-signs-25bn-deal-build/
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Comments

  • Big thing for the construction and architecture firms I work with.

    Also about aging construction workers from UK. Modular means UK needs less builders so good and bad in that.
  • edited December 2016
    Mmmmmm.....will they be significantly cheaper.......I'm not so sure?
    But faster to erect and more readily available one must assume, will be the case.
    To say nothing re the exciting availability of off the peg takeaways!
  • I think they are 40% cheaper to build. Obviously land costs are the same.
  • Been done dozens of times before - from post war prefabs, to concrete framed and steel framed panel clad houses in the 60's and 70's. Virtually all high rise buildings are prefabricated off site - including the tower blocks built to replace the post was slum dwellings.

    It works - just not very well. With inherent problems from initially getting out of the ground, design and manufacturing faults, material issues in both supply and quality and not least, the real long term cost of the building - which is never as cheap as the predicted cost.

    Oh, and try and get a mortgage on a pre fabricated house.
  • Big thing for the construction and architecture firms I work with.

    Also about aging construction workers from UK. Modular means UK needs less builders so good and bad in that.

    You still need ground workers, plumbers, electricians, carpenters. Just swap the brickies for cladding experts and Bob's your uncle.

    Some fantastic individual pre fabricated houses dotted all over the Country - mainly self build.
  • Here we go again. Who remembers the Poulson affair?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Poulson

    The other day, I rewatched "Our Friends in the North" (1996), one of the best TV series ever. The Poulson Affair figures prominently in the earlier episodes.
  • Addickted said:

    Big thing for the construction and architecture firms I work with.

    Also about aging construction workers from UK. Modular means UK needs less builders so good and bad in that.

    You still need ground workers, plumbers, electricians, carpenters. Just swap the brickies for cladding experts and Bob's your uncle.

    Some fantastic individual pre fabricated houses dotted all over the Country - mainly self build.
    Would I be right in saying a significant number have been supplied by Swedish companies?
  • BDLBDL
    edited December 2016
    Thamesmead was modular built, well stage one around Tactics Bridge. Hasn't that just been pulled down??
  • why does it take the Chinese to build these homes ? .. the government has ploughed umpteen funds into (e.g.) 'renewable energies', i.e. windmills .. a few million spent on building factories and training staff would have meant that the UK could have become self sufficient in building these houses, the technology for which has been around since Tudor times ..

    (watch out that the homes are not riddled with 'bugs' not germs, electronic spy devices)

    http://www.acrolmodular.co.uk/index.php/contact-us
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  • £100,000/unit seems steep for a prefab.
  • why does it take the Chinese to build these homes ? .. the government has ploughed umpteen funds into (e.g.) 'renewable energies', i.e. windmills .. a few million spent on building factories and training staff would have meant that the UK could have become self sufficient in building these houses, the technology for which has been around since Tudor times ..

    (watch out that the homes are not riddled with 'bugs' not germs, electronic spy devices)

    http://www.acrolmodular.co.uk/index.php/contact-us

    Think China are going to supply most of the materials indirectly.
  • £100,000/unit seems steep for a prefab.

    Plus the land.

    Plus the planning, environmental impact surveys, ground survey and soil analysis, building control approval......

    Plus the services - gas, electric, water, sewerage, telephones.

    Plus the fitting out.

    Plus the landscaping.

  • edited December 2016

    why does it take the Chinese to build these homes ? .. the government has ploughed umpteen funds into (e.g.) 'renewable energies', i.e. windmills .. a few million spent on building factories and training staff would have meant that the UK could have become self sufficient in building these houses, the technology for which has been around since Tudor times ..

    (watch out that the homes are not riddled with 'bugs' not germs, electronic spy devices)

    http://www.acrolmodular.co.uk/index.php/contact-us

    Legal & General have been setting up the infrastructure to build these for the last six months as part of their strategy to invest in real assets across the UK.

    legalandgeneral.com/homes/



  • Addickted said:

    Been done dozens of times before - from post war prefabs, to concrete framed and steel framed panel clad houses in the 60's and 70's. Virtually all high rise buildings are prefabricated off site - including the tower blocks built to replace the post was slum dwellings.

    It works - just not very well. With inherent problems from initially getting out of the ground, design and manufacturing faults, material issues in both supply and quality and not least, the real long term cost of the building - which is never as cheap as the predicted cost.

    Oh, and try and get a mortgage on a pre fabricated house.

    Agreed. Nothing new here. All comes down to the quality of the build / materials. Always a traditional brick built home for me, not just a brick skin.
  • Beardface said:

    why does it take the Chinese to build these homes ? .. the government has ploughed umpteen funds into (e.g.) 'renewable energies', i.e. windmills .. a few million spent on building factories and training staff would have meant that the UK could have become self sufficient in building these houses, the technology for which has been around since Tudor times ..

    (watch out that the homes are not riddled with 'bugs' not germs, electronic spy devices)

    http://www.acrolmodular.co.uk/index.php/contact-us

    Legal & General have been setting up the infrastructure to build these for the last six months as part of their strategy to invest in real assets across the UK.

    http://www.legalandgeneral.com/homes/legalandgeneral.com/homes/



    Thanks for this and I have seen several articles re: prefab build .. really begs the question, why get the Chinese involved ? .. the blighters make almost everything else you can buy in the shops, why not keep a bit for ourselves ?
  • Addickted said:

    Been done dozens of times before - from post war prefabs, to concrete framed and steel framed panel clad houses in the 60's and 70's. Virtually all high rise buildings are prefabricated off site - including the tower blocks built to replace the post was slum dwellings.

    It works - just not very well. With inherent problems from initially getting out of the ground, design and manufacturing faults, material issues in both supply and quality and not least, the real long term cost of the building - which is never as cheap as the predicted cost.

    Oh, and try and get a mortgage on a pre fabricated house.

    Agreed. Nothing new here. All comes down to the quality of the build / materials. Always a traditional brick built home for me, not just a brick skin.
    This all day long
  • Nothing wrong with timber houses at all. Have great insulation properties and if constructed well using quality materials you can build equally sound houses as brick. Look at Scandinavia and North America and Canada.

    What these look like are cheap timber framed plywood skins with decent enough insulation. Will they still be habitable in 100 years ? I can't see it. I certainly wouldn't want to pay money for one.

    Cheap affordable ? Homes for the plebs.
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  • Very different climates in Scandinavia and Canada to ours.
  • I did a couple of contracts in Kazakhstan a few years ago and the transport company told me I only have to pay for shipping the container one way, when I asked why they explained they tip them off the lorry near the airport and the locals move into them.

    I had my doubts but on one of my trips out I witnessed them myself, back doors welded up and I small door cut in the side.

    At least they were metal.
  • I did a couple of contracts in Kazakhstan a few years ago and the transport company told me I only have to pay for shipping the container one way, when I asked why they explained they tip them off the lorry near the airport and the locals move into them.

    I had my doubts but on one of my trips out I witnessed them myself, back doors welded up and I small door cut in the side.

    At least they were metal.

    It may not be the same, but the hipsters over here do similar:

    image

    That's Pop Brixton, but there's similar in Shoreditch (near the Overground) and apparently Croydon too. They've actually managed to build some nice spaces out of them in Brixton, it's surprising what you can do with a large metal box.
  • On the subject of modular homes though, I'm personally torn.. but can't see much good coming out of it.

    - Doing this to alleviate the housing shortage is pretty damn short-sighted.

    If you want to solve the housing shortage then look at the actual utilisation of existing properties; specifically how properties are now seen as a firm investment strategy and often that's without recurring revenue from taking in tenants. (For instance: If I buy a house at £.5m, it's always going to rise - so I'm guaranteed a profit.. I don't even need to bother finding a tenant and getting a monthly income from it, as nice as that may be.)

    I'm not sure whether legislative changes would be beneficial here, but I can't see the government screwing over overseas investors to be quite frank. I'd suggest that the possibility of (and I'm loathe to suggest it.) tax breaks for overseas investors who become landlords, or maybe even government funded property management services for overseas investors? (i.e Buy a property, and the government will automatically offer to contract in a property management service on your behalf if you're an overseas investor? Perhaps with the incentive of a tax credit (or similar) that then makes your investment more effective.)

    Obviously though, this will only cater to increasing the availability of luxury properties.


    - What will the build quality be like? What are the projected maintenance costs? What is the estimated longevity of these properties?

    I would hate to think of this scheme as "Poor homes for poor people".. but I'm not convinced it isn't. I'm also not convinced that this isn't a very short gravy train, whereby someone else will be lumbered with the long term costs.

    The problem is, if you're catering these properties to the social housing market predominantly, then an already financially-tight model potentially becomes even more tight if the maintenance costs are going to increase, or these properties are going to require replacement in the medium-term.


    - Are the designs proprietary and/or closed?

    If I live in a house and want to make a modification, then I can ring up a brickie and get a quote - and maybe chat to an architect and get a quote for a decent design and some artistic input. With these houses, would it be as simple?

    If they're truly modular, could I start up a company and offer alternative bespoke modules? Is there a standard I can work to? There is a huge amount of irony behind the theory of a Chinese company invoking a defence of Intellectual Property, but considering we'll shortly have the expertise in the UK.. could we capitalise on this and go beyond the terms of the original deal?

    What happens if the Chinese pull out of the deal after 5 years, and the designs are proprietary and no entity in the UK has the license to produce their own parts/modules? Are we in essence giving China control of large construction projects, whilst doing so in a manner that means their control can never be relinquished until demolition?


    - How will this reflect in the jobs market?

    It's brilliant to see that 6 new factories will have to open up and be manned, even if the profits will go back to China via the China National Building Material Company (CNBM), but how will this effect the brickies, and to a lesser extent, architects?

    I can understand this is going to have a very small effect in the immediate/short-term, and such techniques will most likely never be seen within the M25, where every property developer and his dog is attempting to polish a turd, and call it "luxury" before waiting for the inevitable price increases. However, if it does become more common then what will the effect be on the building industry?
  • Similar project going to go in Basildon a HA has set up a factory over Basildon as well to supply two floors kitted out already just needs to bolted together on site and cladded.

    The problem the have a slate roof they want done off site as well which doesn't work.

    So now they are sending fully kitted out units into the elements and waiting for the roof
  • As the UK is still part of the EU this cannot happen. All those Brexiters kept telling us that the nasty old EU was preventing the UK from doing business outside the EU, and they wouldn't lie to us. :angry:
  • edited December 2016
    Addickted said:

    Very different climates in Scandinavia and Canada to ours.

    Pacific coast of Canada in British Columbia has a very mild and wet climate.

    Timber houses are still very common. The timber houses constructed in both Canada and Scandinavia use top end timber. I fully expect the construction of these units will be done like most other new constructs in the UK using cheapest materials possible and made to look good but with no thought for longevity.

    I wouldn't buy one. Don't think you'll see many Tory politicians moving into one either.

    It's a smoke and mirrors cheapest possible attempt to help solve the housing crisis. In the short term it will help I'm sure but God knows what state these properties will be in after fifty years

  • The thing that would worry more than anything is the whole assurance/sign off from when it leaves the factory to handover.
    They will be thrown together, corners cut and ultimately leave the end user with a load of grief.
    Even those things that have gone up on the peninsular have had a number of revisits due to poor QA measures.
  • Addickted said:

    Very different climates in Scandinavia and Canada to ours.

    Pacific coast of Canada in British Columbia has a very mild and wet climate.

    Timber houses are still very common. The timber houses constructed in both Canada and Scandinavia use top end timber. I fully expect the construction of these units will be done like most other new constructs in the UK using cheapest materials possible and made to look good but with no thought for longevity.

    I wouldn't buy one. Don't think you'll see many Tory politicians moving into one either.

    It's a smoke and mirrors cheapest possible attempt to help solve the housing crisis. In the short term it will help I'm sure but God knows what state these properties will be in after fifty years

    50 years is pushing it quite a bit. I worked on The Millenium Village for 4 years as a window fitter and was told by an architect that the life span for these buildings was 25 years.
  • Bloody foreigners, coming over here... stealing our jobs
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