Agree absolutely, but manhattan is what it is because the architects and developers went the extra yard financially and made the buildings, or many of them, beautiful. Here, I suspect , we would get more updates of 1960’s Romania only taller. Wood quay being case in point. Something like the shard or the Gerkhin to name but two would add to the city.
So it emerges… 191,000 EUR is the average cost of a mudular home.
Holy Fuck.
Get me down to the sticks, asap!
PS. Get off the internet and fix the bastardin’ boiler.
Motorized valve is fucked… attempted to bypass it but tripped a few fuses in the process so abandoned till morning. Its mild anyway… no loss on them.
how the fuck do they come up with those figures. It’s mental. traditional build for social housing wouldnt cost near that amount.
No idea mate… recent regulation seems to have everyone over estimating their costs to prevent losing their shirt.
What kind of floor area is that? 3 bed-semi?
What is a modular home? Some sort of fancy prefab which is transported to a site?
Yes
You could have bought one for 50k at the start of 2015, time to get on the modular home ladder quick. This time next month they’ll be worth 250k
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To buy?
To build.
Is the benefit how quickly they can be thrown up then or is there any benefit at all?
Angela Kerins. I can sense her malevolent hand in all this. Sticking a few coffins together out of her shed.
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Must be a shite margin in them so mate.
If it doesn’t make money then it doesn’t make cents.
Social Housing should be built by the Government as a capital investment similar to road project.
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The ‘eco-pods’ that run on just £5 a week housing the homeless
As winter approaches, a project building cheap modular homes to help rough sleepers is in high demand
SoloHauses are 258 sq ft modular homes that come with fixtures and furniture
SIMON J HARVEY
Sunday October 17 2021, 12.01am BST, The Sunday Times
“I’m slightly intimidated, but I have to remember I’m entitled to shelter and I’m entitled to safety,” the 33-year-old says quietly. The woman standing before me in the morning sun is nervous, shuffling in her new trainers, hair neatly braided. She is excited too, just as excited as any new homeowner would be.
“I’m ready for the independence,” ST says. She doesn’t want to give her full name and is vague about her background, describing herself as “one of the lucky ones” who hasn’t been homeless for too long. Now she hopes to be luckier still and to be selected among the first people to move into 32 specially made eco-pods for the homeless in Haringey, north London.
After housing rough sleepers in hostels and hotels throughout the pandemic, local authorities are keen not to see them return to the streets as winter approaches. It means that Hill Group’s SoloHaus — a 258 sq ft factory-built, galvanised steel, eco-friendly home with fixtures and furnishings — is in high demand.
SoloHaus is in high demand
SIMON J HARVEY
A couple of months before the first lockdown, unaware of the looming pandemic, Andy Hill, the founder of Hill Group, pledged to donate 200 of the structures to help to tackle homelessness as part of the company’s 20th-anniversary celebrations. “We hadn’t really factored in that there would be so much demand,” says Greg Hill, Andy’s son and now deputy chief executive of the company. “It is a lot to do with the way Covid sharpened and intensified the homeless problem.”
Hill Group, until now a London and South East focused company, is working with local authorities across the country “from right down in the South West to the North”. The project will easily exceed Andy Hill’s original plan for 200 houses, with additional homes being sold for a cost price of “about £80,000”.
So far 57 homes have been delivered onto brownfield sites, the development in Haringey being by far the largest after smaller pilot projects in Cambridge and Ipswich. The projects, including that in Haringey, are led by apprentices at Hill Group, with much of the work by outside contractors donated or done at a discount.
Despite the strong demand, Hill says: “It’s been a lot more difficult to gift homes than we thought.” Stumbling blocks have included finding suitable sites, ensuring management services can be delivered and planning regulations can be met — space standards proved tricky in London.
The homes, which are on their seventh design since the prototype was developed last year, would be the envy of many a first-time buyer, with their neat orange doors, on-trend grey sofas with yellow cushions, well-stocked kitchens and spacious bathrooms.
Rob Costello, a former rough sleeper, is now a peer adviser to the homeless, helping people to get off the street
SIMON J HARVEY
“Just to be able to shut and lock that door will be a great feeling,” says Rob Costello, 55, a former rough sleeper. Costello, pictured top , moved into his first home, an assured long-term rental tenancy in Haringey, ten years ago and is now a peer adviser to the homeless, helping people to get off the street.
“It was hard with bills and things, some people have never paid bills,” he says. The SoloHaus homes are estimated to cost £5 a week to run, being highly energy efficient with air source heat pumps.
The homes are small, cosy and designed to be temporary accommodation for single people while they prepare to move to more permanent homes within two years. Freyja Banks, the deputy manager of the Haringey site, says that there will be someone on site 24 hours a day as well as help on hand from a psychologist, addiction specialists, employment and training services.
ST is particularly excited about the job training; she wants to become an administrator. “So far I have had help with CV writing and interviews — it is about building my confidence,” she says. “I am scared about opening up to people.”
Martin, 51, one of SoloHaus’s longest residents after he moved into one of the first modules in Cambridge nine months ago, certainly recommends it. “After all that time in hostels, streets, night shelters — however long that was — you can shut your front door and lock it and just be you or be with the people you choose to have as company,” he says. “And it’s sort of a stepping stone to getting your own council place. It will probably be about a year, but I’m in no particular rush. It’s the first time I felt settled. I know this is a move-on place, I’m aware of that, but it’s more homely than I have felt for a long, long, long, long, long time.”
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