Bunnings Flat pack homes

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booyah

82 posts

Master Geek

#251463 26-Jun-2019 14:32

Does anyone have any experience with these? Looking to plop one down on a section in Auckland as it seems more affordable than buying a existing house

Thanks in advance

wellygary

8335 posts

Uber Geek

#2265076 26-Jun-2019 14:50

As a geek, I would say the first thing you should check is what data wiring is in them,

I have a nasty feeling they will have a conduit for a basic connection and maybe a couple of phone Jacks,

You want as many outlets as possible with plenty of cable runs, ( same goes for power )

[Wiring is an easy place to cut costs out of a build, so I would expect they will be pretty stingy]

jonathan18

7413 posts

Uber Geek

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#2265083 26-Jun-2019 14:53

I haven't any experience with them, but do support the idea of flatpack or even modular homes (I like much about the Greenhaven modular show home on the Kapiti Coast).

But I assume you've seen and read the suite of articles that Stuff published on these homes (and other similar options from other companies) a few weeks back?

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/112793079/bunnings-cheap-flat-pack-homes-are-getting-popular

https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/latest/112811124/couple-stoked-with-their-bunnings-diy-house-but-theres-competition

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/112846499/the-real-cost-of-a-flat-pack-house

Aredwood

3885 posts

Uber Geek

#2265227 26-Jun-2019 18:12

Covenants on the land might not allow such houses?

Unless the section is quite big, you would probably still have to get a resource consent due to breaching height to boundary rules etc.

Do you have the money in the bank to pay for everything? Or will you need a mortgage? As the banks would probably want good equity, and a fixed price build contract. Can you afford mortgage repayments at the same time as living expenses in your current house?

Cost of things like driveway, landscaping, fences, drains, other underground services.

And then you would probably still run into the main issue with Auckland house prices. Which is that the land is the expensive part. If you are paying $500K for a section. Then by the time you buy the flat pack house, pay Labour costs to build it, deal with all of the council costs and bureaucracy, pay holding costs etc. Would you still make at least 100K profit (even if only an on paper profit). Compared to just buying an existing house, where you can immediately move into.

Lots of the build costs are either fixed costs, or they dont increase much in relation to getting a bigger house. Do you spend $200K to build a small house on your 500K section, which might be worth say 800K when finished? Or do you spend an extra 100K or so to build a larger house, that would then be worth $1.2 million when finished?

There is a reason why property developers only build either tiny apartments/ terraced houses. Or large standalone houses. As that is how they get the best value out of expensive land.

Council rules mean that you are not allowed to get a builder to just build you an empty (but weatherproof) shell. And leave you to do the interior fitout, driveway etc yourself. This was a method that allowed lots of baby boomers to get into the housing market back in the day.

There are building companies such as Keith Hay Homes, and lots of others. That specialise in building simple and solid houses. But council rules mean that most of them end up on rural land.

Aredwood

3885 posts

Uber Geek

#2265232 26-Jun-2019 18:32

Depending on where in Auckland you are thinking of buying, In my suburb at least on the North Shore. Prices have dropped 200K as a guesstimate.

And note that there are lots of former rental properties coming onto the market at the moment. As the Baby boomers want to move into lower risk assets/ dont want deal with the new rules for rental properties. And there are law changes in the works to punish landlords who try to rent out properties that dont have all council sign offs. This will catch out lots of houses that have been illegally converted into multiple tenancies. Most of those houses will be too costly to be made compliant as multiple tenancies. So their options are: sell on the market as is. Combine back into a single occupancy house. Or demolish and rebuild.

Either way, this means that a large group of houses that would normally be tightly held. Are coming up for sale. And it also means that such houses could allow first home buyers to get a better house than what they otherwise would be able to.

If you have limited buying power. Consider teaming up with someone else, to jointly buy a former illegal rental property, that had been divided into 2 tenancies. Could be the ideal way to go halves on a house, while still living independently.

Not good for tenants though. As lots of cheap rentals are being removed from the rental market.

JayADee

2148 posts

Uber Geek

#2265447 27-Jun-2019 07:25

This is true, boomers are just starting to retire and start looking for smaller houses.