Have a look at those examples of prefab houses:

http://www.heinzvonheiden.net/hvhcms/sbhaeuser/uebersicht-der-haeuser.html

And now have a look at house prices in the UK.

So why this huge gap? Why do people (have to?) spend about 100,000 pounds for an old..crappy...run-down house with only 1 bedroom if you can get a brand-new house with plenty of rooms like this one for instance
http://www.heinzvonheiden.net/hvhcms/no_cache/sbhaeuser/uebersicht-der-haeuser/sb-einzeln/haus/2/sb140.html?tx_hvhhousegallery_pi1[backListPid]=327 with 6 rooms for just about 30,000 pounds excluding the land? (which is even better then any random house for more then 100,000 pounds - as you need less energy for heating etc...)


Well, the land is the problem....I think it is really hard to find some land in the UK - and if you are lucky - you would probably still end up spending more then 90% of all costs just on the land.

Assuming you wanted to get a cheap (but good quality and economic) continental prefab-house - you probably would not get a permission even if you managed to get the land - there are lots of regulation as for the number of rooms or the look of the house. You are basically forced to build a house with not many rooms that looks really boring and crappy....just to fit into the neighbourhood....

Another thing is that lots of people buy and sell land to make money - therefore the prices for land are ridiculously high.....

An average plot should not be more then 10,000 pounds - so you would all-in-all get away under 70,000 pounds for a brand-new house with plenty of rooms....

But imagine what happened in that case? Most other older houses would loose almost all of their value as people would prefer to get a new and more modern house with more space - for a fraction of the price. Most people would be ruined then if their houses would be evaluated to be woth only a fraction of the price they bought it for....

some fab houses there toby... i agree with what ur saying... it aint right

my mother has a four bedroom house with and extension built on adding a downstairs bedroom, bathroom and dining room. with three sheds out the back... she was willing to knock down her extension and all the sheds to buy my grandmother a prefab house (fabulous, went to see one... i'd bloody well live in it!!) and her planning permission was denied. i wouldnt mind but she owns the land her house is built on.

its a disgrace!

Just some examples:

Have a look on some property website for a house with 4 or more rooms and look at the cheapest ones that you can get.

I found some ugly house like that:

(rightmove.co.uk)

for £179,950 pounds!!!

Ok, assuming the land is 1/3 of the total price, the land would be about £60,000.

But have a look what kind of houses you can get for a lot less money....even a lot less then the land itself:









from [url:120ad9da18]http://www.kampa-haus.de/pages/de/hausprogramm/haeusergalerie/5/106/0/start.html[/url:120ad9da18]

or:

- less then £30,000 !!!

around 50,000 Euros....

from

[url:120ad9da18]http://www.heinzvonheiden.net/hvhcms/sbhaeuser/einleitung.html[/url::120ad9da18]

So what's wrong? Why do people prefer so old and crappy houses for so ridiculously high-prices?

because a real house lasts longer. the prefab we looked at was 70,000 and we were told it had a twenty year shelf life basically. so after twenty years it could start to rot. houses over here are around 400,000 for near me and in dublin they are about a half a million.

Well, that is what they tell you. But that is not true - just a "conspiracy".

Apart from that many houses in the UK for under 200,000 pounds already ARE rotten but still people manage to sell the somehow. And people manage to remortgage them every couple of years as if the value had risen - in fact the house itself deteriorates and sooner or later they are rotten completely.

And it is not true that they dont last as long - it depends on the type of prefab house - and they will last longer then 100 years.

Prefab houses are not necessarily worse then other houses - in fact they are better then for instance the first example I posted - those houses are not very energy-efficient. Prefab houses are environmentally friendly, energy-efficient and often people offer prefab-houses built with natural resources.

I used to live in a house in Portsmouth - and in the winter heating was useless - the windows were so crap that in the morning when the sun came out, it was a lot warmer outside then inside. This is a pure waste of energy. Compared to such a house you would cut the costs for heating by 1000 or something.

It is some sort of conspiracy - some people make lots of money and just fool other people and make them believe the houses that are for sale are really worth that much. Of couse, it is a matter of demand and that determines how much people are willing to pay for a house. Most people dont have the time or knowledge for alternatives - they just need a house and when they found one they can afford, they will get a mortgage and move in. Although they could live in a really luxurious house for half that money.

i sometimes think about buying a parcel of land in the field behing my house and getting a prefab there..... they are fantastic.

and a omg a balustrade to go around it!! oh dont get me started

I found something interesting:

http://www.moneyweek.com/file/3161/prefab-houses.html



okay...it seems to get popular now to build prefab houses in the uk now....

however: the same house kits are a lot more expensive then for instance in Germany...a house kit (up to 200%-300%!!!)

Also lots of companies seem to sell the final result for the same price to buyers - they just make a bigger profit.

The main problem is probably the planning permissions - so you end up paying lots of money for the permission itself.

It really seems like "someone" does not like the idea of everyone being able to afford one of these houses to keep the general house prices high....

Maybe it is because otherwise houses like this one:



would not be valued to be worth £405,000 anymore and everyone would be f***** as they would have massive problems with the mortgages.

Also dont understand why people invest to much energy in trying to make ugly houses look pretty:

http://www.channel4.com/4homes/ontv/property-ladder/pl_crouch-2.html

the cheapest and easiest thing would be to just knock them down and get a new one - so you also save money on your heating bills :-p

After the war they put up loads of prefabs for people that was bombed out, they were like small 2-3 bedroom bungalows. They were only supposed to last ten years. 50 years later my uncle is still living in one

wow those houses look great i must say it would solve so many homelessness isuues too as people would not need to rent and would buy leaving space for housing councils etc to dramatically reduce their list, but yet again the economy will put a boot in it drives me nuts lol

About 5 years ago there was a documentary on TV about underground homes. Apparently you don't need planning permission because you are going down not up, just have to conform to building regulations. The cost of building isn't much different then a conventional home, but you can save because you should be able to build them on land without planning permission. From what I can see its best to build them in the side of a hill.

http://www.undergroundhomes.com/photos.html

One of my uncles put up a pre-fab 20 yrs ago. Still as good as new. And as for underground ones, unfortunately there is no way i could live without a view and lots of daylight pouring in.

[quote="god"]

Well you could have "holes" in the roof for plenty of daylight

quote]

it does look good, but that wouldn't be enough for me. I suffer SADS in the winter. I'd spend 4-6 months of the year licking the windows!!!