this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2025
31 points (94.3% liked)

Aotearoa / New Zealand

1806 readers
11 users here now

Kia ora and welcome to !newzealand, a place to share and discuss anything about Aotearoa in general

Rules:

FAQ ~ NZ Community List ~ Join Matrix chatroom

 

Banner image by Bernard Spragg

Got an idea for next month's banner?

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Dave@lemmy.nz
RaoulDuke@lemmy.nz
31
Kiwi firm designs low-cost, fast-build house (www.rnz.co.nz)
submitted 6 days ago by Dave@lemmy.nz to c/newzealand@lemmy.nz
22 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

A New Zealand architecture company has designed a three-bedroom house that three people can assemble in six weeks for $335,000.

RTA Studio just constructed its first 'Living House' in Rotorua.

It is 85sqm and designed for quick assembly once the foundations are in place, the cost includes a functional kitchen with appliances as well as flooring, lighting, carpets and heating. It does not include the land value.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] BalpeenHammer@lemmy.nz 3 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Prefab housing has been a thing for a very long time all across the world. There are massive economies of scale and automation when you build panels in a factory and just assemble them on location.

I don't know why they never caught on NZ but I suspect it's a combination of regulations and lack of will from the public.

Having said that even 335,000 seems like an insane amount of money for the house alone. Given you can't buy land for under 500K in most places that still puts the total value at about a million dollars or above.

[–] TagMeInSkipIGotThis@lemmy.nz 1 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Yeah that's what I was looking at, its nearly $4k / m2 which is kinda crazy.

I'm trying to find papers showing cost of building over time but so far only got to this one where it was demonstrated back in 2008 (by a now merged Department of Building and Housing) that a starter house could be done for less than 1.5k/m2 - and that included labour.

[–] BalpeenHammer@lemmy.nz 2 points 4 days ago

Yea that does seem super expensive. In all honesty though the way to go is multi story multi residence buildings AKA apartments. Best bang for the buck and better for the environment.

[–] TagMeInSkipIGotThis@lemmy.nz 1 points 4 days ago

OK, found various sites with various estimates, but all of them suggest that this pre-fab and build yourself is probably overly expensive.

2022 - $2460 / m2 (https://www.moneyhub.co.nz/building-costs-per-square-metre.html) 2023 - $3145 / m2 (https://mortgages.co.nz/what-does-it-cost-to-build-a-house-in-nz/) 202? - $3500 / m2 (https://www.buildingguide.co.nz/planning/building-costs/)

That last one is an estimate for the very basic level, which I think is pretty close to being better than this pre-fab option.