New Zealand Company Cashes in on the DIY Modular Homes Trend

Flat-pack homes are increasingly popular with New Zealanders looking to build their own homes or relocate to remote places. For one company, this trend turned a side business into a real money-maker.

Simon Hinds of Hinds Construction said that the prefabricated home kits captured 25 percent of the business's total sales.

Hinds said he had built 30 flat pack homes over the past two years. Eight of those homes were constructed in the last five months and delivered to customers around the Kāpiti Coast. 

There are now 72 of Bunnings' Clever Living houses up throughout New Zealand. The houses can be designed and built off-site, then transported to the location or home delivered as a kitset and built on-site by a registered builder.

Hinds said, including labour costs, the houses ranged from $79,350 for a 60-square-metre two-bedroom kitset to $230,000 for the four-bedroom 106sqm homes. Hinds said about half of all inquiries were from first-home buyers. 

A Bunnings spokeswoman said it had approved 21 builders to build its DIY homes. Builders must be a licensed building practitioner in order to qualify as a Clever Living builder. All approved builders can provide the customer with a third party, 10-year residential building guarantee.

There are five templates, and the most popular style was 'the Angus', a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house priced at about $226,000.

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