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Chinese factories could build 8000 homes a year for Kiwis

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Price was the major reason Margie and Pat Lamborn chose to get their modular Christchurch home made in a Chinese factory, but they are pleased with the result reports Amanda Cropp on Stuff this morning

They moved in 10 days after it landed on the wharf at the Port of Lyttelton.  Echotech Homes, which delivered the Lamborns' new digs four years ago, says that by mid-2019 Chinese factories could build 7000 to 8000 houses a year to help fill demand in the New Zealand housing market.

The company now has about 60 Chinese factory-made homes scattered around the country and founder Tony Frost is gearing up for larger housing and commercial developments.

Huge Chinese factories produce house modules fitted with bathrooms and kitchens, which are clipped together here using relatively unskilled local labour.

Housing Minister Phil Twyford hopes more than half the Government's 100,000 Kiwibuild homes will be made by prefabrication, and a large delegation of Government officials and developers is heading to Asia in the next month to visit Asian prefab factories, including Yahgee, the company Frost works with. . . .