Affordable Living…But Built To Highest Standards
We must forget post-war pre-fabrication built to last for just 10 years instigated Sir Winston Churchill, some of which still standing, albeit crumbling 70 years later. Of course nowadays we all know there are up to 60 year guarantees given with Off-Site Manufactured products built of course to the highest standards requiring low maintenance and using pretty much the same materials as traditional build:-so it's no cheaper. The key benefits as we all know with OSM are obviously speed, quality, less impact to the environment & indeed safer. Options available inc; 3D Volumetric (basically up to 96% completed rooms built in the factory) to Elements/Panels (pre-built panels made of either light weight steel or concrete or wood) and....Bathroom pods (built to any standard from 2000 euros upwards). Each method has its' own merits depending on a variety of factors inc; the site locality, timings, remediation or not, height & width restrictions, road access, lenders/investors specific requirements etc.
The hard facts are 3 million plus affordable homes are required in the UK urgently, with overseas support combined with skilled UK delivery partners (willing to share risk), relaxed planning laws, Homes England & other investors this is achievable. Investors are learning fast particularly with 'repeatable style built assets' such as hotels and the 'build to rent' sector building up to 50% quicker creates far more attraction to them and their co-investors. It's all about 'bums in beds' as quick as possible locating sites that are suited to modular.
The UK's current OSM 'cottage industry' is growing slowly which is encouraging news but compared to at least 1,500 years of delivery experience of OSM's in the Baltics, Poland & Turkey alone the key issues are production capacity/scaleability and serious on-going financial investment in to the factory. It is my belief that the very best OSM's are in a very strong position embracing collaborative working principles with investors, developers & contractors naturally. Certain entities are still fighting OSM as they see this as a serious threat to their existence, either genuine or not most of it is down to lack of experience and investment within their company. Dedicate the time like we have to visiting all these factories, build genuine relations (don't hit them with a stick!) establish thorough ground rules, contracts, customer service, performance guarantees and belief in the factories balance sheet and slowly but surely the UK will convert.
Since we, ACE Modular Construction, launched just 2.5 years ago we have attracted £2 Billion of enquiries from several countries (inc UK, Scandinavia, Uzbekistan, Caribbean & Africa) most of which coming in to realisation 2020/2021 onwards, our thought process is a conversion rate of 5-10% and will increase as the years go by with acceptance of modern methods of construction particularly in the UK. Consideration in place initially should we even target the UK at all on the basis of so much work to convince? We believe it is worth the effort, and decided to continue looking very much long-term combined with construction related products & services including HVAC, Window Treatments, Domes, Windows and Adventure Parks. Eventually the UK will grasp OSM and like most things humans do not like change!
With the uptake of OSM considerable we are only just launching www.acemodularconstruction.com website which is the expansion of our brand www.lithuaniagb.com
It's all about collaboration
Initial and yet still existing objections that have been overcome during the past few years;
- "You cannot get mortgages" - whilst it was challenging for many years now over 30 mortgage firms approve OSM. In turn property development lenders, albeit very slowly, have gained more faith in highest quality deliverable Off-Site realising the sheer benefits. If it is good enough for Scandinavia and other countries it is good enough for the UK where standards are somewhat inconsistent. No longer an excuse.
- "Some buyers don't class modular as fit for purpose" - with modern day levels of OSM this is not true, ask 'mega successful entrepreneur' Tom Bloxham from Urban Splash who has spoken out in his blogs about this achieving high/same prices for modular build and in business for 25 years no less. No longer an excuse.
- "It is too risky" - any business is riddled with risk, particularly construction, a disaster waiting to happen, main & Sub contractors & developers holding my deepest respect. It is no more riskier using modular than traditional build, contractors go out of business regularly and you have more control building in a controlled environment coupled with robust contracts in place, due-diligence, de-risking as much as humanly possible. No longer an excuse.
- "Modular is not suited to all construction projects" - absolutely right! No argument there.
