Chinese factories hold housing promise
Pat and Margie Lamborn’s threebedroom hillside home in Christchurch was built in a Chinese factory, and they moved in 10 days after it landed on the wharf at the Port of Lyttelton.
Echotech Homes, which delivered the Lamborns’ new digs four years ago, says that by mid2019 Chinese factories could build 7000 to 8000 houses a year to help fill demand in the New Zealand housing market.
The company now has about 60 Chinese factory-made homes scattered around the country and founder Tony Frost is gearing up for larger housing and commercial developments.
Huge Chinese factories produce house modules fitted with bathrooms and kitchens, which are clipped together here using relatively unskilled local labour.
The Government has just announced proposed changes to immigration rules, making it easier for building firms to hire overseas workers to fill an estimated 30,000 shortfall in tradespeople and project managers.
But Frost said offshore builds would reduce the need for migrant labour and Ecotech was developing a three-bedroom townhouse that could be assembled on site in a day.
He said the efficiencies of the Chinese factories – one of which covered 15 hectares – would be hard to achieve here and the speed with which they could deliver was a major advantage.
‘‘If we had an order right now for 1000 houses, we could do it within 12 months. There’s no way that offshore manufacturing is going to satisfy [housing demand] on its own, and there’s no way that local manufacturing can satisfy on its own; there’s a mix.’’
Frost said the offshore builds did not offer great cost savings over conventional construction for single-level one-off townhouses in suburban locations. ‘‘However, for hill sites, remote locations [and] multi-level ... we can save in the area of 30 per cent in cost, and deliver projects two to three times faster.’’