movingtonewzealand

Wondering if anyone has experience of building a kit home? Prices seem excellent but too good to be true..?

wez130

What are you basing your prices on? You can buy relocateable houses for $1 on trademe lol. You have many, many things to consider though, i've found the main factor in buying in NZ is the cost of land, property without land costs peanuts, but there are also many other factors you have to consider, planning permission, connecting to gas / electric and water supplies, the price of actually building the property and i'm sure there's plenty i've missed out.

movingtonewzealand

Hi, yes I've looked into this quite a bit. Will need a geotech report, LIM report etc on the land, as well as how the services will get to it and costs involved. TC1/TC2 categories too & covenants of course. Not looking at used homes though, only a brand new kit home, which seem incredible for the price. Specifically the Imagine kit homes.
The cost of land where we are I find is pretty reasonable, especially as I want to live somewhere rural.

escapedtonz

My colleague is currently on the path of specifying and building a kit home around 150 SQM for positioning on a slab on a section he has purchased in Tauranga near to me.
All seems too good to be true in my opinion. I think his build costs will be around 300k all done with decking, heating, appliances and anything else you would need which is very good. Appears it'll arrive in two halves that are built in the factory and bolted together.
I'm just concerned for the quality. Not sure it'll be as good as a "normal" timber or steel framed house would be....only time will tell.
All throughout our build, everyone from the building franchise personnel to our project/construction and site managers to the design people and the engineering people and all the tradies have said "You get what you pay for!!!".
With that in mind and knowing I wanted a house to last at least 25 years, we didn't consider a kit home.
Also need to check your covenants and the councils district plan that may prevent you building or using certain types of property on the land. In our case, when the section went for Title the owner had specified a personal covenant that said we couldn't build a kit set home or use a relocatable home.

Pulaski

If that's what you mean by a "kit home" in NZ then you have good reason to be concerned. In the US they are called "double-wides", meaning basically two trailer homes bolted together. There are also triplewides.

They are generally flimsy and seem unduly prone to movement and subsidence compared to superficially similar "stick built" homes. A colleague of mine owned one and it pulled apart right down the gable, leaving a vertical crack probably 5cm wide down the end wall.

BEVS

No. Not the same thing in New Zealand.

Kitset homes still have to meet the NZ building standard & code. Still have to use the 'acceptable materials' per the building code, so may be basic but should still be sound otherwise no building inspector will sign it off.

Pulaski

Ah, but here's the thing, the same rule apply in the US - they have to be "to code" here too. BUT "regular" homes substantially exceed code in areas such as joist thickness and length, wall thickness, etc. So while it is true that trailers, ... er, .... double-wides, ... er, "modular homes" are built to code, they are nowhere near as robust or durable, nor for that matter as well insulated, as traditional homes.

scrubbedexpat094

Traditional homes aren't too great for build quality and insulation here TBH

BEVS

I've lived here in NZ for 13 years & admit I know nothing about USA trailer homes. Husband has worked on plenty of NZ builds & we've seen plenty of builds. Kitset or otherwise. None of which resembled two static caravans/trailers bolted together. We need to be up on the assorted compliance codes because of his trade . I'd say NZ doesn't really have 'trailers' as such but we do. We use 'em to pull dead pigs , old settees and the like behind our vehicles. But heck. What do I know.

In NZ we have a building code for residential properties. The OP is looking to build a residential property. The company he is looking at does steel frame as well as wood frame. It also insulates. Any residential build has to be signed off to the code of compliance & standard.

BEVS

I'm with Escaped on the final build cost. What makes the homes seem more affordable is that the kitset is the bones of the build. Same type of build as a franchise might do but without the builder, project and site manager. You would need to manage your tradesmen from beginning at slab, to final fit out as well .

I'd ask for a spec on the kit you are interested in and then take that to a local builder /franchise and see if they can match the price for the same.

From that cost the project , including any 'variations' = extras , i.e. internal pink batts or wood frame double glazing instead of aluminium, underfloor heating - and in the case of lifestyle or rural - water storage requirements for the area.

With the slab , ensure that the cost for the slab is exactly for the depth of slab you will need for the land. As that cost can mount up quickly if the slab is not correct.

Sounds exciting.

bourbon-biscuit

Kit homes in NZ vary in quality hugely. At the "transportable homes" end they are basic and blocky shaped and meet the code. At the high end they are high spec eco homes that far exceed the code. Kit set can be very useful on exposed sites where some of the work can be done before coming on to site.

We built a kitset home nearly ten year ago. It was lovely and we choose to improve on insulation and a few other things such as kitchen etc. You are definitely talking out of your bottom when it comes to NZ kit homes

Bumptious

There are some really cute ones in Greytown, quite small and made to look like much older houses, they have a certain charm about them - other than that I don't know much about them, but did look at them driving through recently.

sr71

What is the difference between these and the ones that mass house builders make? I'm not sure about NZ, but in Australia there are house and land packages being built in endless suburbia - the houses alone start from $120k - are these similar?

Bumptious

These are the ones I saw in Greytown, might not be your cup of tea of course but I thought they looked very nice driving past Timber Homes, Houses, Cottages, Studios | 1880 Cottage Co

Stuck in Auckland

Agree, you might find a trailer with a tent more robust

Most homes I have seen are held together by the mould, and the new paint skin (to hide the mould)