It’s been reported that the ongoing housing crisis has driven rental property prices in Cork up by over 40% and made it more difficult than ever for young Irish families to buy their first home. For years now, Ireland’s building industry has faced challenges to keep abreast of growing demand leading to a massive deficit in housing.
Part of the issue is that the building industry has a massive labour shortage. What compounds this problem is that the industry, and planning authorities, are lagging behind the state of the art in modern construction processes and technologies. The traditional way of building a house requires more labour and longer construction time. The overall result is a greater cost for homebuyers and less output; Fewer houses can be built in the old way – and they cost a lot more. Brick and mortar walls take longer to build. And additional steps are required to insulate, install plumbing, and wire the interior.
How Modular Construction Could Help the Housing Crisis
Ireland could benefit from a move towards greater use of modular construction in homebuilding. Everything from structural steel frames, prefabricated walls and factory-finished flooring could all play a part in producing more affordable, comfortable and beautiful homes faster. Since mofastertion is partly done off-site in a factory, which means that construction of the building itself can take place in parallel with groundwork. This can greatly accelerate building times. Factory-built walls, windows, doors and roofs can all be built more sustainably, with reduced waste materials. The result could be more affordable, better-insulated living spaces with greater quality control under the tighter overwatch of a factory environment.
Are Prefab Homes ‘In Keeping with the Surroundings’?
Many prefab and modular home designs have a different aesthetic from traditional Irish brick-and-mortar homes. Most Irish houses were quickly built in the early to mid-20th century to provide affordable housing. Many were not built to be attractive. However, today, planning authorities are faced with a fresh challenge of maintaining certain design standards with modular homes whilst not hindering their rapid development to aid the housing crisis.