Prefab house firms pile in to KiwiBuild

More than 100 prefabricatedhouse builders have applied for a chance to be part of the Government’s KiwiBuild scheme.

Housing Minister Phil Twyford said the KiwiBuild unit of the new Housing and Urban Development Authority had received 102 responses to its invitation to pitch from ‘‘offsite manufacturers’’.

Those applying included overseas manufacturers and the New Zealand Superannuation Fund.

The fund is not involved in offsite manufacturing, but a spokeswoman said it was ‘‘interested in exploring investment opportunities in large-scale housing infrastructure development and modular/prefabricated housing.’’

A 2014 report by PrefabNZ showed that ‘‘co-ordinated procurement and production’’ could shave $25,000 off building costs, and effective buying of materials could save a further $15,000.

‘‘For a typical one-off small to medium building project, this can be expected to be a 60 per cent reduction in construction programme time, and 9.3 per cent saving in cost.’’

Twyford said there was ‘‘a real opportunity’’ to leverage the Government’s procurement power and the certainty of KiwiBuild’s targets to make the prefab industry more innovative and committed to the New Zealand market.

But it would take time for the prefab sector to gear up, he said.

In the meantime, KiwiBuild would press on with making land available for development and integrating affordable housing into current big housing projects.