A familiar-sounding solution to the UK’s housing shortage has been identified – the return of the prefab.
Prices for today’s prefab homes start at £20,000
The cheap housing method, whereby homes are built off-site and dropped into place, is once again the future of building, according to an independent report commissioned by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
Pre-fabs got a bad name for shoddy design and poor construction after they were churned out by the thousands to solve the post-war housing crisis.
But while today’s versions – dubbed “modular” homes – are still low-cost, with prices starting at £20,000, they boast state-of-the-art design and impressive “green” credentials.
Researchers believe this type of housing could offer a cheap and easy way of tackling the UK’s housing “deficit” – the 80,000 too few homes built each year to meet the need for affordable housing.
Chris Goodier, of Loughborough University, who co-wrote the paper, said: “Many major mortgage providers are already willing to lend against these structures, which has been a problem in the past, meaning that first-time buyers could find them a highly practical way of getting onto the property ladder.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/constructionandproperty/8279552/Prefab-homes-could-solve-UK-housing-crisis.html