Articles
2008-06-05 - Is A Manufactured Home Right For Me?
Factory-built homes will play an increasingly important role within the Canadian homebuilding industry in the future, according to a report published by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). As consumer’s acceptance of factory-built housing is on the rise, production will continue to turn increasingly toward modular construction, along with increasing integration between the factory-built and site-built sectors.
Modular homes are built in three-dimensional modules, offering homebuyers and builders a great deal of design flexibility. The homes are very energy efficient and can be built to the R-2000 Standard, which is the highest standard for energy performance in Canada. Modules can be combined to make one, two, or three-storey homes. A typical two-storey home will consist of four or five modules, with larger custom homes possibly using eight or more modules of varying dimensions. When the modules arrive at the lot, it is ready for assembly and placement on the foundation. Insulation, air/vapour barriers, plumbing, wiring, siding and other construction details are completed for the most part. Most interior finishes are normally completed, including drywall, trim, flooring and cabinets. Finishing the home on site may take the builder a couple of weeks, depending on the size, style and features of the home. Some features and custom upgrades should be completed on site, such as brick siding and some hard surface flooring.
The increasing shift into modular housing products, prevalent since the mid-1990s, is a response to the general focus in homebuilding toward product enhancements and lifestyle marketing. The majority of factory based producers today are modular producers, who consider themselves ready and willing to produce any design a customer can bring to them. This is accredited to technological advancements and better choices available in efficient structural materials, which have enabled the sector to build larger, more open concept living spaces and incorporate other design elements and features to better fulfill customer needs.
In 2004, factory-built housing companies produced approximately 16,890 residential units, with production volumes reaching $1.2 billion, accounting for approximately 1.5% of residential construction investment in Canada. When looking at the total economic product of the sector, it is considerably higher at about $2.2 billion, including export value and consumer expenditure on transportation, installation and other items. In 2004, Canadian producers exported approximately $157 million worth of factory-built homes, offset by imports of just over $9 million. Considering trade flows, 11,860 factory-built single-family housing units were constructed in Canada in 2004, about 7.2% of all single family housing starts in the country. Continued steady domestic demand is forecasted for single section manufactured homes. These are typically installed in one of Canada’s roughly 1,000 landlease communities, due to the relatively lower cost of these units and their role in providing a highly affordable housing option. Modular homes have shown the most growth among all types of factory-built housing, and the popularity of these homes will continue to stimulate growth.
Data compiled from the Canadian Manufactured Housing Institute at www.cmhi.ca
