Pre-Fabrication no Silver Bullet for New Zealand Housing

"Phil Twyford’s suggestion that International Standards has housing costs at half of what we pay in New Zealand. and that pre-fabrication could address this, is way off the mark," says New Conservative Leader, Leighton Baker.

Pre-fabrication provides well known benefits. Consistency, work flow and less time on site, to name some, but it does not generally provide substantial financial savings. The reasons are quite simple, in a like-for-like house, there are the same amount of materials and the variable is labour.

With labour costs being around 10% of a build, the savings from pre-fabrication are likely to be only 2-3% of the build price. The bigger issue when it comes to driving down build costs is a continuum of work.

"If there is a reliable demand for houses, then contractors can invest in systems and equipment that will allow them to build more homes with less labour, and less waste.

"Major issues like land costs, labour shortages and quality remain, which all need to be addressed to breath any life into Kiwibuild and provide the housing New Zealand requires moving forward.

"New Conservative has some practical ideas to help Mr Twyford, and we look forward to working with him in the future," concludes Baker.

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