Faster and cheaper: Modular homes built in China key to solving SA housing crisis, SA company BoxMod owner Neville Roberts says
Built in China, shipped to SA ready for assembling, completely fit-out and vastly cheaper … a developer’s answer to the housing crisis is now on display.
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Modular, prefab homes fully built in Chinese mega-factories and shipped to SA for assembly are the answer to the housing crisis, an SA developer says.
The two-bedroom, two-bathroom homes sell for just under $300,000 – plus cost of land – which includes all fittings, as well as electricals, airconditioning and plumbing.
But the speed at which they’re built is the key. Former SANFL legend-turned-developer Neville Roberts said he can have about 100 built a month – and he’s aiming for 1000 – because of Chinese technology.
Mr Roberts said the “completely compliant” homes – with kitchen appliances, decking and luxurious finishes – are assembled in SA.
“It has all your appliances, vanities, showers, toilets, floor coverings, all the cladding, gyprock, lighting, whatever you want inside,” he said.
“Everything’s done before it gets here. We flash it together using typical flashings and put a roof on it.”
Buyers can “up-spec” to whatever luxury items they want, including stone kitchen benchtops or ceramic bathrooms.
Mr Roberts’ company BoxMod now has a Kadina display home, which is quickly racking up views on realstate.com.au as people desperate to crack the housing market consider the alternative to houses constructed on-site.
He said some were “nervous” of modular homes because of problems years ago, but these days “it’s just another form of building”.
“The ones we do are either concrete, steel frame or converted containers – the word container scares the piss out of everybody, but if you’re a common-sense, logical person, it doesn’t have to be the normal size container – it can be wider and bigger.
“All we do is it’s cut out what we don’t want and we’re left with probably the toughest structure on the earth in terms of a building.”
Mr Roberts – a former SANFL and VFL legend – said China was not a dirty word when it came to building things.
“We’ve lost sight of manufacturing,” he said. “There are manufacturers in China which would make the city of Adelaide look like a small place. There are one or two factories that are 1km long.
“One of these factories has its own port, it loads its own ship … everyone goes on about building in Australia, but show me something that’s built here and I’ll call you a liar.
“The shirt you’re wearing, the car you’re driving, the bloody computer you’ve got, where do you reckon they all come from?”
Getting the modular homes into Australia is a whole other ball game.
“It’s taken me 27 years of trading there to know what I’m doing,” he said. “You gotta bring a product – 80, 90, 100, square meters in boxes – through international ports, load them on ships … get them 16,000kms and they’ve got to look like the Hyatt Hotel.
“It ain’t easy and then you’ve got Border Control, they want a test for every single surface in it.”
In June, the state government announced a tender for 120 prefabricated, turn-key homes across SA.
The homes – or key components – would be manufactured off-site before being assembled in regional and metro SA.
Under a pilot project, six modular homes would be bought from three builders and displayed initially in metro Adelaide for inspection by government agencies with a regional presence, councils, investors, lenders, planners and other stakeholders.
Ultimately, Renewal SA plans to relocate the houses to regional towns, as an expansion of the Regional Key Worker Housing Scheme.
China can build 10-storey towers within hours by prefabricating sections of entire floors in factories before transporting them to the site and assembling with cranes.
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