Building boom delays arrival of modular homes
We’re in the midst of the biggest building boom for the last 50 years. Tony Houston
Plans for 12 Chinese-built containerstyle Hobsonville Point modular homes have been delayed by seven months because of this country’s over-stretched housing construction sector.
Tony Houston, managing director of Neilston Group, which owns the pioneering Modul building system, said although the first three homes were finished and sold in the northwest last year, the next 12 were taking much longer than expected.
Instead of being on-site in February, they now won’t leave Guangzhou for Auckland until September.
“It’s very slow because it’s so timeconsuming. It’s more the engineering, consenting and paperwork side of things here in Auckland,” he said of importing the steel-framed houses which arrive built-up with even the kitchen taps installed.
“You go to an engineer and they can’t look at it for six weeks. We’re in the midst of the biggest building boom for the last 50 years.
“Covid did slow it down a bit but it’s not really the production side of things,” said Houston, a former franchise owner for G.J. Gardner’s busy North Shore and western areas.
The first three terrace-style twolevel Modul Hobsonville Point homes are at and beside 23 Nugget Ave. Houston showed those off last year to illustrate the success of the Modul system.
But last August he was also optimistically forecasting that by February this year, the next homes would have arrived.
Instead, only earthworks are underway at a site up the hill from the first three on Nugget Ave.
The 12 new houses are still in China and unfinished.
“Designing in this modular way is very specific because it’s manufacturing. In China, they need more detailed drawings than we do in New Zealand. For example, there’s standard timber in 4x2 and you have that in houses in New Zealand but when you design it for a manufacturer, you have to draw each piece and say where holes need to be drilled in it.”
Modular housing still has an extremely bright future and the setback did not deter him, he said, although he stressed the Modul designs were not shipping containers – because, for a start, the units are larger.
Tony Frost, founder and managing director of Ecotech, which makes the homes, said he was in China overseeing the production of those 12 places now.
“We are several months late starting due to the New Zealand supply sector being under huge strain from design, engineering, consenting to on-site construction works that all have to be done ahead of manufacturing,” Frost said.
Ecotech has exclusive New Zealand rights for Yahgee International products, which he then sells to Neilston.
The next 12 homes were a different design to the first three on Nugget Ave, Frost said. Instead of living areas being upstairs, they would be downstairs.
“These are new design that has had to be certified and the quality assurance framework written and agreed by the local authorities prior to the works on the production line being booked in for manufacturing,” Frost said.
Houston also plans to build 100 new Modul homes at Mt Roskill. Half of those are to be KiwiBuild and priced at about $650,000. Others would cost about $850,000.
“We’ve done all the site works for three sides,” he said of plans for that land.
Houston is working hard to achieve his vision: to build homes in a way similar to the manufacture of cars – in more efficient and standardised form. He wants to change the sector, one home at a time.