When you hear “prefab,” you may think double-wide mobile home. It’s a misconception the industry has long been trying to clear up.
Prefab, a type of construction method, can be found at the luxury home level. More prefab options are stretching into the high-end market, combining quicker construction timelines with ultra-luxury touches.
Prefab homes are built offsite in a factory, delivered to a home site, and assembled faster than a traditional stick-built house. About 50% to 80% of the construction of a prefab home is done offsite.
Demand for luxury modular homes has increased during the pandemic. Method Homes, a prefab manufacturer, reported that sales in 2020 were up by 50% compared to 2019 sales, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Modular homes—often with a contemporary design—can be customized and are fetching higher price tags. Joseph Tanney, the founder of Resolution: 4 Architecture in New York City, designed a seven-bedroom, nine-bathroom modular home in Bridgehampton, N.Y. that sold in September 2020 for $4.7 million. The home included a pool, pool house, decking, geothermal and solar power systems, and green roof.
In the luxury market, modular homes are speeding up build times. For example, Brian Abramson, co-founder and CEO of Method Homes, told The Wall Street Journal that a high-end custom 4,000- to 6,000-square-foot traditional stick-built home could take 16 to 18 months to build. A modular home of a similar size could take less than a year.