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Sunday Times Modular Homes

ended 23. June 2022

A journalist at the Sunday Times is writing an article for this weekend on how modular homes might be able to help solve housing shortages if planning for them was made easier? Have you got any views on this? Is modular the holy grail of the housing crisis? Could the planning process be made easier for this type of property? Any other thoughts, jot them down. Deadline is midday. 

6 responses from the Newspage community

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Jamie Lennox
Director at Dimora Mortgages
Until planning delays can be resolved, no type of home is going to fix the housing shortage. However, if certain styles of modular homes could be pre-approved for being built if a set of criteria could be met it certainly would make a huge dent into the lack of new properties being built each year. The concept is fantastic really as they can be built offsite all year round versus the traditional approach which can end up weeks if not months behind schedule due to poor weather conditions.
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Lewis Shaw
Owner and Mortgage Expert at Shaw Financial Services
The planning process should be made far easier for everything, not just modular homes. Due to such a chronic housing shortage, modular homes could help ease the housing crisis. We need to be bolder in our thinking around our national housing strategy because it's a problem that is getting worse daily. No one in government seems to have any plan to try and fix our broken housing market, so the excellent work that Legal & General is putting into modular homes is fantastic. It's a perfect example of what can be done to build energy-efficient homes at scale, cost-effectively and sustainably. If that means tearing up the planning laws and helping thousands of people into homeownership, then so be it.
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Graham Cox
Director at Self-Employed Mortgage Hub
Radical solutions are needed to solve the UK's housing crisis. Modular homes are quick to assemble, energy-efficient and, nowadays, attractively designed. We need to shake off the stigma surrounding pre-fabricated properties and get building. My grandparents lived in a prefab property in Catford, south London. They were originally intended to house people for a decade or so after the second world war. But they loved it, and stayed in the property for over 50 years.
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Rhys Schofield
Brand Director at Peak Mortgages and Protection
Frankly it's insanity that bricks and mortar invented in 6500 BC is pretty much the only thing mortgage lenders will accept as a way to build a structurally sound and, just as importantly in the 21st century, energy-efficient home. The reality is that the future almost certainly would be modular as they are quicker to build and more energy efficient but the various interests in the housing market seem to be paralysed when it comes to moving on from the status quo. Grasping the opportunity presented by modern technology needs government intervention to bring all the vested interests of builders, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, planners and lenders together to come up with housing policy that is fit for the future.
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Paul Neal
Mortgages & Equity Release Advisor at First Choice Financial Services
Modular homes are a good idea to help with a lack of stock, but how would this be funded? No lender will have as its security a property that can be lifted with a crane and taken away.
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Sabrina Hall
Mortgage Adviser & Protection Adviser at Kind Financial Services
As a mortgage adviser I often find that the difficulty with these types of properties is that mortgage lenders are nervous about lending on untested/innovative property constructions. As the mortgage is secured on the property itself if they have concerns about the resale prospects of the property or even worst if the property structures aren't sustainable for long term use. Unfortunately, until mortgage lenders keep up with modern methods of construction I think this will limit the ability of these properties to grown in popularity and therefore restrict the chances of them solving the housing crisis. Builder and mortgage lenders need to work more closely together in order to resolve this.