Engineers Ireland calls for more modular homes to be built

A much higher level of modular housing is badly needed to address the housing shortage crisis, according to Engineers Ireland.

The current target of 1,500 modular homes built this year is not adequate the meet the challenges of the housing crisis, its director general Damien Owens will tell the organisation’s annual conference in Dublin.

Most of the modular homes in the State are being built at present to deliver 700 homes for 2,800 refugees, a handover which is expected to occur next month.

Modular homes are based on modern methods of construction. They are built in factories and assembled on site. They can be constructed in a factory in a matter of weeks and take a few days to erect. They are also less labour intensive than traditionally built homes and cheaper.

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Speaking in advance of the Engineers Ireland annual conference in UCD, Mr Owens pointed out that eight out of 10 new built homes in Sweden are built using modular housing.

He said: “There are great advantages to be gained from growing the volume of offsite-manufactured homes to significant levels, including better and more innovative design and faster construction.

“The key beneficiaries should be those households seeking better value for money, better quality, and higher amenity in their homes, while adopting these approaches can also help drive down the cost of building.

“Additionally, with such construction methods, fewer deliveries of materials are often required with only what is needed is brought to site, so waste can be greatly reduced, while prefabricated modular elements can be created from more sustainable materials. The present target of 1,500 modular homes to be constructed by the end of next year does not utilise the potential of this technology.”

Mr Owens’s comments come as Dr Ronan Lyons, Associate Professor of Economics at Trinity College and member of the State’s Housing Commission, prepares to tell the conference that the number of homes that must be delivered to meet current demand is 55,000 to 74,000 per year, roughly twice the Government’s target of 33,000 homes per year, outlined in the Housing For All strategy.

The discrepancy between targets and actual need is in part, Dr Lyons will say, due to an extended period of population growth exceeding official projections.

“Over the last seven years, Ireland has tracked a ‘high migration, low fertility’ scenario, but its housing targets are based on a low-migration scenario, something that has not reflected reality,” Dr Lyons will note.

Last month the Central Statistics Office revealed that the population of the State stands at estimated at 5,281,600, a jump of 97,600 people, or 2 per cent of the population, in a single year, largely driven by high immigration.

“The failure of housing targets to take adequate account of immigration is contributing to a housing shortage. This, in turn, has meant that Ireland’s younger adults have been forced to delay forming their own household, something that has a host of consequential impacts on public policy and has resulted in Ireland having one of the largest average households in Europe with children frequently remaining in the family home well into adulthood,” Dr Lyons will add.