54 INDUSTRY VIEWFINDER: SOLVING THE HOUSING CRISIS VIA OFFSITE CONSTRUCTION
BARRIERS TO ADOPTION With this positive understanding of the benefits of , consistent with the previous year’s, the natural question remains: What is stopping housebuilders from adopting these technologies?
What would you say are the biggest barriers to building offsite?
One of the most prominent disparities compared with the 2021 data – and arguably the key barrier for many housebuilders – was the perception around the costs involved in moving to offsite construction methods. hile in the study of our respondents believed they could save money building homes offsite, ust said so this year, with 43% saying that offsite methods wouldn’t cost them any more or less than their current methods and 34% believing that building homes offsite would cost them more money. Following this, when asked what they perceived to be the biggest barriers to building offsite, initial cost was once again front and centre.
hile buyers’ perceptions of modular homes has seen improvement in this year’s figures set against , somewhat confusingly when compared to previous answers, buyers’ lac of confidence once again came as the second most common barrier to adoption suggesting their perceptions have improved, but perhaps not enough. This year, the remaining barriers listed by our respondents, in descending order of popularity, were the dominance of traditional bric and bloc construction a building method still particularly strongly favoured by buyers in the then resistance to new methods among housebuilders, the design process, resistance to new methods within the supply chain, supply itself, a lack of incentives, sills, regulations, and finally insurance and warranties.
Another barrier presented by many in our 2021 research was a lack of Government support available to encourage the uptake of modern methods of construction, with believing the support offered to be insufficient. This feeling has grown even stronger among this year’s respondents, with experiencing a lac of overnment support on this issue. One of the 2021 survey’s most prominent barriers – and one that is often argued as being prohibitively expensive for smaller builders in particular – is the investment required for a factory to build homes. Somewhat more of interest to this year’s respondents, ust less than half said they would never consider investing in a factory to build homes, down from . hile ust on reported that they already own a factory to build homes, would consider owning or leasing a factory to build homes in the future meaning ust over half of respondents this year are now considering it, or already do. The barriers for smaller builders don’t end there however, with our data indicating smaller builders can find it harder to adopt offsite construction technologies. of respondents believed that the size of a housebuilder or developer influences their ability to build offsite.
CONCLUSION
Looking back over the two years that have passed since we last researched opinions of offsite among housebuilders, progress has been made towards the adoption of modern building methods. Stakeholders are increasingly interested in and receptive to the technologies, with all three stakeholder categories viewing them more positively, and our survey confirms a continued, widespread appreciation of the benefits of adopting . Despite this progress, there has also been some regression since . This year’s respondents use even less than before, and a large number have invested zero in R&D for the technologies to date.
t appears that, for most of our respondents at least,
is still considered too expensive, and not yet something they feel comfortable with can invest in – despite their understanding of its benefits.
s such, if is to be adopted by the wider industry and by smaller builders in particular it is this perception and arguably reality of the costs that must improve, alongside further support from the Government, and perhaps the chance to experience real life examples of how all builders can achieve the change without breaking the bank.
odern methods of construction have the potential to benefit so much in our industry, but it appears that for now, the sector will continue with business as usual for some time yet.
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