Following the Stanley Modular essay, this is interesting:

Goldman bets on prefab

Swedish harbour © Alamy
In Sweden most houses contain pre-made elements
And where investment banks go, others tend to follow…
Investment bank Goldman Sachs is putting its money into prefabricated houses: dwellings that are put together in a warehouse and then delivered to their destinations fully formed. Goldman has decided the industry is worth a $75m investment. Modular housebuilding is not exactly new to the UK: we tried it in the aftermath of World War II in an attempt to meet the urgent demand for housing.
Yet today’s prefabs are, thankfully, more stylish as well as more energy-efficient. The idea is that if production is ramped up, prefab housing could go some way towards meeting the 300,000 houses-per-year target the government thinks we must reach in order to keep up with demand.
Unfortunately, the UK is far behind other countries in adopting the trend. In Sweden, around 84% of houses are built using prefabricated elements, according to Forbes. This proportion is 20% in Germany, while in Japan more than 15% of houses are built in factories. In the UK, only 15,000 (7.5%) of 
But despite the slow start, there are signs that the idea is taking off. The company Goldman has invested in – TopHat – says it can build three flats a day from its site in South Derbyshire. Its first project is to build 300 houses in Kent. And the investment bank isn’t the only big name showing an interest in the sector. Financial services company Legal & General has its own modular homes division, with a factory in Leeds that has the capacity to produce up to 3,000 houses per year. Ilke Homes, which works out of Yorkshire, reckons it can build eight houses in a day. These properties would cost 20% less to heat than traditional new-builds.
It remains very difficult for people to invest directly in modular housing (although Amazon, Google and the UK’s Berkeley Homes are all dipping a toe into the sector).
And there are certainly still hurdles to prefab going mainstream. For one, the construction cost per unit is 12% higher than normal building methods, so housebuilders are reluctant to embrace the option. There’s also a limit to the size of a property that can be transported on the back of a truck. However, it is when big investors begin putting up cash that problems like these miraculously start getting solved.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

E-commerce article for Yr13

Image
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jan/30/future-of-e-commerce-bricks-and-mortar Amazon leads the way into the real world as online real estate – once heralded as the next frontier for retail – becomes crowded and expensive  Amazon’s first physical book store in Seattle. Photograph: Amazon Mark Walsh Saturday 30 January 2016  12.00 GMT Last modified on Sunday 31 January 2016  00.02 GMT Share on Pinterest Share on LinkedIn Share on Google+ Shares 63 Comments 6   Save for later Remember when the future of retail was online? Now it seems that online retailers have decided they can’t get by without bricks and mortar. Amazon raised eyebrows in November when it  opened its first brick and mortar extension  – a bookstore in Seattle’s University Village. The online giant’s rise, after all, is blamed for laying waste to independent bookshops across the country. But Amazon is only among the la...
Read more

Price Elasticity of Demand study notes from tutor2u

Image
Understanding how demand for a product might change as price changes is essential to an effective marketing strategy.   First, a quick acronym - price elasticity of demand is often to just "PED": much quicker to write, particularly in an exam, so we'll use it here.   PED measures the responsiveness of demand for a product following a change in its own price .   The formula for calculating the co-efficient of elasticity of demand is: Percentage change in quantity demanded   divided by the percentage change in price   Since changes in price and quantity usually move in opposite directions, we usually do not bother to put in the minus sign. We are more concerned with the co-efficient of elasticity of demand [however, in the exam be precise and use the minus sign].   By calculating Ped, a business can assess how a change in price will affect the demand for its products. This is really useful information for any marketing plan, but also h...
Read more

Gig economy, workers' rights, staff as assets/costs

Pimlico Plumber worker should be paid sick pay, court rules in landmark gig economy case Court of appeals says Pimlico Plumbers gig workers entitled to full employment status    CREDIT:  PA   Cara McGoogan   10 FEBRUARY 2017 • 12:00PM R Rules for companies that employ workers in the gig economy could change after a Court of Appeal ruled against Pimlico Plumbers in a landmark case.  The Court ruled that Pimlico Plumbers' self-employed contractors in fact qualify as workers, meaning they are entitled to employment rights such as sick pay, minimum wage and paid holiday.  Gary Smith, a former employee of the London plumbing company, brought the case, claiming that he should have been entitled to basic employment rights. Mr Smith sued the company after he was dismissed following a heart attack. He said his status was more akin to an employee than contractor and that he should have received benefits such as sick...
Read more