The internet has been the go-to place for many years when looking to purchase a home. Through real estate websites or various portals aggregating current listings, potential buyers can get a rough idea of the market situation, gather more information, or contact sellers. However, another option might exist: e-commerce platforms like Amazon sell prefabricated houses. Should we include the e-commerce giant in our home search? Will we end up buying our new home over the internet?
The system appears straightforward, and judging by the results of searching for “prefabricated house” on the online store’s search engine, it is tempting for the wallet. One of the first houses displayed by the website costs 6,999 euros and will arrive in just two weeks. If you opt for a smaller size, the price drops to 3,999. Amidst a housing crisis, with prices ever increasing, the existence of such alternatives seems too good to be true. And in some ways, it is. Nothing is that simple.
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Online prefabricated house: all advantages?
That first result that appears on Amazon -in Scandinavian pine wood, with a porch in its more expensive version and the promise of being energy efficient- meets some drawbacks. Looking closer at the ad, a table lists a series of technical specifications: the wood is untreated (you’ll have to do it yourself), the beautiful decor seen in the photos will not come with the package, nor does it include roofing materials, and perhaps most importantly, assembly is the customer’s responsibility (they ensure it will take about three days, “depending on experience”). They don’t say it, but it’s implied: the buyer must also handle any electrical or plumbing installations. And, of course, as with any prefabricated house, you need a plot of land to install it. These micro-homes are really more suited as garden sheds than as homes.
Even if someone were tempted to use one of these dwellings as a primary residence -an idea that some influencers in the US and Canada seem to be exploring– it’s not possible. “In Spain, there is a regulation requiring an architectural project, a license, and a series of technical requirements that make it unfeasible for such a product to have the price they indicate for residential use”, explains Sergio Baragaño, CEO of the architectural startup ROOM2030. Additionally, he adds, “transportation and installation costs are very significant”.
Rules for buying a prefabricated house
Part of the appeal of advertisements for prefabricated houses sold on websites, beyond their price and the claim “in two weeks you have it”, is avoiding the entire house construction process. Something that, in reality, shares with the market for this type of construction, which has experienced a boom in Spain since the pandemic. According to Inarquia, the demand for prefabricated housing increased by 60% since COVID-19. But what should be considered when buying?
An important first step is to learn to differentiate between prefabricated, industrialized, and modular construction, three adjectives often used synonymously. In prefabricated homes, the different elements are not created on-site (as in traditional construction) but are manufactured elsewhere and can be transported already assembled (thus, they are modular homes) or to be assembled at the final destination. Industrialization refers to the construction process, which is done in a factory and in series, like manufacturing a car. Thus, a house can be prefabricated, modular, and industrialized, but it could also be only prefabricated and industrialized, for example.
Once this is clear, what should we look for if we want a house with this type of construction? “There are increasingly more purchasing options, different levels of quality and finishes”, says Sergio Baragaño. “It is important to compare products of equivalent quality and not fall for sensationalist messages and figures for any housing in Spain today, whether industrialized or traditional. The high demands of the Technical Building Code, the needs for insulation and minimal installations to comply with certifications require choosing quality products, which entails a cost”, he indicates. That is, we must study, compare, and not be swayed by offers where everything is too easy (and especially, suspiciously cheap).
What changes will this bring to the construction sector?
When considering the construction of a new dwelling and the set of people involved in the entire process, it’s easy to see that these not-so-new construction models significantly alter the processes. “Industrialization changes some rules of the game”, agrees Baragaño. “It greatly facilitates the work of technicians, having much greater quality control since it is carried out in a factory. Also, by always having the same construction site visit location, which is the factory where we make our homes”, he adds.
Prefabricated houses for emergency situations
The fact that it is possible to buy a house (or shed) at a significantly reduced price and that its assembly is relatively quick positions this type of construction as a very interesting option in emergency situations. “These are solutions that have been manufactured very quickly for years, so they are good alternatives for these cases or for other types of buildings with fast startup needs”, assures Baragaño. In fact, back in 2016, the winning proposal of the Beazly Design of the Year award was Better Shelter, a collaborative project for creating temporary housing for refugees. As we told you in this post, the shelter consisted of a steel frame structure covered with lightweight polymer panels and its 68 pieces arrived packed in two flat boxes weighing 80 kilos each, including the necessary tools for assembly, which was completed in just 4 hours.
Alternative uses for prefabricated houses from e-commerce
The current situation in Spain, as Baragaño points out, makes purchasing one of these constructions on Amazon and using it as a primary residence, if not unfeasible, then a bad idea. In their descriptions, in fact, many of them already include other alternative uses. It could be a shed in which to store gardening tools, a guest house separate from the main dwelling, or a space designated for a specific activity. English writers such as Virginia Woolf or Roald Dahl had a shed in their gardens where they wrote. Some have even set up their own library.
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Even so, it is still necessary to consider the entire assembly and electrical and plumbing installations if you want the small house to have light or water. Furthermore, some of these constructions will also require a license to be legal (depending on local regulations and their size, among other factors), so before clicking and having a delivery person leave the elements of a future building in the middle of the garden in a few days, it is best to be well informed and, at least for now, resort to professional companies that have been making and installing prefabricated, modular, or industrialized homes for years.
