Google buys low-cost, modular homes

In Auckland,  two high schools (Rangitoto College and Macleans College) are considering building homes on part of their land – the better to attract teachers as the accommodation squeeze sees some jobs go unfilled, or receive barely any applications.

In Silicon Valley, Google has the same problem. The high cost of housing in San Francisco and its surrounds means the tech company’s workers have trouble finding any accommodation nearby, let alone at a reasonable cost.

And it seems to have struck on a similar solution to Rangitoto and Macleans’ – although it’s a little more assertive, and a little further down the track.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Google’s parent, Alphabet, is finalising an order to buy 300 apartment units from Factory OS, a modular-home startup, in a building likely to serve as short-term housing for Google employees, according to executives from both companies.

The order is said to be in the region of $US25-30 million, which shakes out to $US83,000-100,000 per modular home (or $NZ80,000-130,000). No size is given, though FactoryOS' website shows modest units (see photo above). The startup claims its modular designs can be constructed for 30-50% less than the cost of equivalent size homes built through traditional, on-site methods, and 40% faster.

Nearby Facebook has a similar plan to build $20 million of housing on two sites near its headquarters.

Here, AUT construction professor John Tookey recently told NBR that off-site construction of pre-fabricated, repeatable designs was a key part of solving Auckland’s housing shortage – given that capacity is maxed out under the current model. However, he was not sure if the large building companies would be willing to make the up-front investment in this area. He sees them as risk averse, and wary of being caught out by the next bust in prices (which Prof Tookey sees as inevitable at some point).

The Journal notes a number of modular housing companies in California and New York have failed over recent years, in part because the technology is still developing.

There have also been issues with permits and approvals between states, and between countries, over earthquake readiness and other  areas.