As the need for housing continues to grow, different styles of housing are proving effective at filling the widening gap.
A Sunshine Coast-based company, Click Modular Homes, recently supplied several modular homes for shíshálh Nation and celebrated the completion of its 100th home earlier this year.
Operating out of Port Mellon, Click Modular Homes' director of operations, Scott Fearnley, said they try to ship out at least one home a month.
Fearnley emphasized the efficiency and predictability of their factory-built process, which he says includes comprehensive inspections and documentation, and explained that customers can pick a home from their catalogue, walk through the type of home and see exactly what they will get.
“It's kind of like the difference of getting a car built for you, or buying a car that somebody makes, and they make more than one of them,” he said.
The modular homes are built on their Port Mellon site and shipped out, what Fearnley calls “95 per cent or more complete,” including details like sinks, faucets, tiling and plumbing.
These homes offer a fast housing option, with a seven-month cycle from purchase to delivery, says Fearnley. Once the homes arrive at their destination, Fearnley said it is about 20 days before the owners move in. This time includes appliance installation, painting, and a comprehensive walkthrough with the customer with a six-page checklist.
Fearnley explained that another benefit of the modular home process is that customers can customize their home when looking at the models at the factory.
“They're a little bit like snowflakes, where lots of them are similar, but some of them are a little bit unique, just because the customers had some vision around that,” he said.
He said over the last decade, Click Modular Homes has continued to perfect its process and done some “interesting things” with multi-family and neighbourhood developments, including 15 homes in the Aurora West development, off Reed Road in Gibsons.
“We like doing that too, because we like getting affordable homes, as affordable as it can be on the Sunshine Coast,” Fearnley said.
Recently, three of these homes were purchased by shíshálh Nation, which Fearnley said will be used as rentals.
These homes were purchased out of the company's inventory and are in the process of being retrofitted with sprinklers and heat pumps, which has slightly delayed the process. Fearnley estimates that families could be moving into these homes as early as June 1.
“We have a quality that we think is extremely high in the quality of our construction. And we encourage our homeowners, our customers, to come and see at all stages of their house.”
Jordan Copp is the Coast Reporter’s civic and Indigenous affairs reporter. This reporting beat is made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.
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