Building a new house can be daunting, whether you're ready to upsize, downsize, retire, invest, or get onto the property ladder. Fortunately, prefabricated homes (prefabs) provide an affordable and convenient solution tailored to your needs.
In this article, we explain what prefab homes are and explore the advantages and challenges so you can make an informed choice for your situation.
What is a prefab home?
Prefab homes are manufactured in a controlled factory environment and then delivered to your site as a finished product. They’re permanent and durable, with none of the hassles of conventional construction. Prefabs are ideal for new home builds, family homes, tiny homes, cabins, holiday homes, farm homes, and second dwellings.
At Genius Homes, our prefabs are built to the highest standards, with strict quality controls and inspections throughout. We’re also committed to providing a seamless building experience, with turnkey solutions including house design, full project management, factory construction, on-site work, final touch-ups, and ongoing support.
Benefits of a prefab house
Due to the factory portion of construction, prefab homes are more predictable, efficient, cost-effective, and sustainable. At Genius Homes, our process also offers sustainable building methods, design customisation, regular progress updates, and high-quality materials. The key advantages of our prefab construction include:
Predictable and controlled
Because our prefab homes are constructed inside a purpose-designed factory, every element of the project can be tightly controlled. This also means we can define and adhere to your budget and timeline.
Weather can often be an unreliable variable for traditional builds, as heavy rain or strong winds can cause tradespeople who work on the exterior of a home (such as builders, painters or brick layers) to halt work on jobs. This can have a domino effect on the timeline of other trades which delays the schedule and may increase the costs. As our prefab homes are built in a factory, we can continue work throughout the year, rain or shine.
Sustainable construction
Compared to brick-and-mortar houses, our prefab homes use fewer materials, creating a more sustainable building. Building offsite also reduces the number of trades, vans, and diggers visiting your site, which reduces our impact on your landscape and the recovery time of your land, allowing you to enjoy that "settled-in" feeling much sooner.
At Genius Homes, we also store any excess construction materials in our factory, preventing waste and mess in your environment.
Faster construction
Once your plans have entered our production line, the average building process to site delivery will take up to 10 weeks, depending on the size of your home. Before your project begins, we will provide you with a clear timeline from commencement to delivery and will keep you informed throughout.
There will be an additional few weeks of site work until the keys are handed over. With an internal team of builders who are well-practised in building these designs, we can move efficiently and quickly to have your home ready as soon as possible.
Our houses come with appliances, kitchens, and bathrooms so, once the essential connections have been made, you can start enjoying your Genius Homes prefab within hours.
Generally, it takes one to four months longer to build a traditional home than it does to construct a prefab home, especially during winter. Therefore, prefab construction also reduces the time spent in temporary accommodation or staying with family while you wait for your house to be built.
Customisable designs
If you’re not sure about the shape of your roof or you want to add a scullery, we can change your plans to reflect your individual preferences! Our prefab homes are highly customisable so you can add a personal touch or change the layout.
At Genius Homes, we can draw up a new design to meet your specific requirements. You can either take one of our existing designs and tweak it or come to us with your ideas for a dream home and we can discuss your options.
Regular progress updates
During construction, we will send regular photos and reports of how your house is progressing. If you want the experience of watching your house come together like an on-site build, you also can visit our factory and see your new home coming together.
Affordable new homes
Building a prefab home is an average of 10% to 20% more affordable than a traditional home. The controlled construction environment in the factory means you’ll be provided with a fixed cost at the beginning of the process. Due to our bulk buying agreements with suppliers, we can also pass great discounts on to you.
Energy efficiency
Our prefab homes are built for South Island conditions, with thermally broken aluminium window frames, double-glazing with Argon and Low-E, EPS R3.1 floor insulation, and Pink Batts roof and wall insulation. This makes them highly energy efficient, resulting in lower energy bills and warmer, more comfortable homes.
High-quality materials and workmanship
Your Genius Homes build is delivered to your site as a fully-finished house, complete with all your specifications. From the framing to the finishing touches, everything is carried out in the factory under close supervision so we can ensure your home is built to the highest quality standards.
With every Genius Homes prefab, the standard inclusions include products from New Zealand’s most trusted brands, including COLORSTEEL®, Weathertex, Pink Batts, Resene, Godfrey Hirst, Bosch, and more.
Challenges of a prefab house
Whilst owning a prefab home comes with a great many benefits and advantages, there can be challenges also. Although some may not be relevant to your situation, these points are worth considering.
Finding the right financing provider
Historically, securing finance for a prefab has been tricky because banks cannot treat it the same as a normal construction loan. However, as prefabs are increasingly popular, banks are starting to offer loans that are designed for the prefab approach. For example, we work in partnership with BNZ to offer prefab home loans.
Ensuring the land is suitable
With a prefab, you will need to find and purchase a piece of land for the house to be placed on. Compared to a house and land package, this may require more time and resources. You will also need to account for any site work required to prepare the land for your prefab home, such as removing soil, laying a driveway, or building a retaining wall.
At Genius Homes, we offer free site visits to assess your land and determine your options. We can recommend house plans that will work with your site and terrain and also identify the best delivery route for a prefab transportable home. This allows us to plan the costs of your building project and give you a clear, fixed price tailored to your site.
Additional expenses
In this section, we share the additional costs that are not included in the base cost of your Genius Homes prefab. While the majority of the project is included in a fixed price, delivery and site work are priced separately because they vary based on location.
However, even with these additional costs, prefab home projects are typically still more affordable than a standard build. What’s more, we include design work, full project management, expediency, and convenience as standard with all our prefab projects.
Generally, transport prices range from $3,000 to $20,000, depending on your location and distance from the factory. When purchasing a prefab home from Genius Homes, your project manager will come to your site and identify additional costs before your project gets underway so that there are no expensive surprises later on.
Prefab Homes NZ
To find out everything you need to know about the process of building a prefab home, download our full guide today. Alternatively, if you’d like to discuss our process with one of our experienced consultants, contact us directly for a friendly chat.
