The fact that the Government is considering planning exemptions for modular homes in people’s back gardens is not the solution to the housing crisis. But it’s a start.
Since California relaxed laws around what it calls Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) in 2016, their number has skyrocketed, accounting for nearly one in five of all new housing units today.
Indeed, there’s even a state grant, worth $40,000, towards the cost of building them, such is the public good they are considered to offer.
While there are downsides, not least for the neighbours, the advantages are clear.
Currently, one of the biggest planning conundrums is how to persuade older people to free up empty nests by trading down to smaller units. Many might jump at the chance if they could find something suitable nearby, but too often can’t.
In such cases moving into an ADU in their own back garden could present an ideal solution, and one that keeps families closer.
Even if owners don’t want to move in themselves, having such a unit to rent out would provide welcome income in retirement.
But of course by far the biggest benefit is that such units would make it easier for hard-pressed renters to find affordable accommodation in an otherwise nightmarish market.
While the issue is only at the scoping stage here, those who already felt they had no option but to install a modular home in their – typically – parents’ garden, are keeping their fingers crossed that their situation will be regularised.
It’s something Catriona Nolan of Loghouse, a maker of cabin-style homes, has frequently seen among her customers. “I visit clients as their build is happening, so I get to see first-hand exactly what they are using it for and the stories behind them, like all the young couples who are living in a box room in their parents’ house and saving for their first home,” she says.
“I always go back and visit afterwards and typically the couple will live happily in the log home for a few years before going on to purchase their first home, because they’ve been able to save so much. After that their parents are able to rent out the log cabin, so it is income for them.”
Given that people who are putting in a cabin-style home typically don’t have to buy the land, it’s an affordable solution. Loghouse offers a four-bed log cabin, measuring 15.5m x 9m, from just €49,980, including VAT. It has a three-bed alternative for €36,540, around the same as a new car.
All its log houses are designed for the Irish climate with damp-proof membranes, extra window seals, end trims and sealants, to protect against the weather. The foundations it puts in are designed to keep dampness away from the structure, ensuring a longer lifespan.
The company manufactures all components of the cabin, from structural timbers to doors, windows and roof cladding, which ensures quality and means it doesn’t have to outsource to multiple manufacturers.
Such homes do require maintenance. “If you build one right on the coast you’re going to have to paint it every three years. If you live in a normal garden, it’s every five years, to treat and maintain the wood,” explains Nolan.
Because getting a mortgage for such properties is nigh on impossible, clients often get a credit union loan to help build them, she says, pointing to one client who recently did just that.
“A single mother, she bought a budget three-bedroom cabin that allowed both her children to have their own bedroom. When I went back I asked how much in total she had spent putting everything in, including kitchen, plumbing, electrics, all of her furniture – everything. It was just under €76,000, that she paid for with savings and a credit union loan of €30,000,” says Nolan.
She believes the introduction of planning exemptions for such homes will be an enormous relief for people like that woman, who have already built such homes in contravention of planning regulations. It will also mean fewer youngsters will feel they have no choice but to emigrate just to get their adult lives started, she adds.
Exempting accessory dwelling units is not the only planning innovation that could help resolve the housing crisis.
JP Simpson of Big Man Modular in Cork custom-designs modular homes; he reckons one of the most effective solutions would be for planners to give permission for all new houses in a development to have four bedrooms, but for those houses to be initially built as two-bedroomed homes.
This would immediately lower the cost of the new build, while still ensuring it has all the services it needs, but allow it to be expanded affordably as the family’s needs change over time.
“It’s letting people get on the property ladder with a two-bed house. Then, because they like the area, have built up contacts and have their kids in school, why are they going to have to move? It should be that every house in the estate is permitted to be a four-bed house but because initially you can’t afford that, you have a two-bed, that is affordable. That will get most people started, because 90 per cent of people will be able to afford the €200,000 it would cost,” he says.
The use of modern methods of construction, including modular homes, makes homes more affordable anyway. “These houses are designed to be built in such a way that you can just add on to them, like fancy Lego,” says Simpson.
One of Big Man Modular’s 40 sq m homes, that are sleek, warm and beautiful, can cost just €150,000 fully fitted and installed. It will last a lifetime and, even better, if the owners did ever want to move to another location, they can unstack and bring it with them.
Of course, large ramping up of traditional house and apartment building is what’s really required to resolve the housing crisis, and quickly. Whatever can be done should be.
Again it’s something Catriona Nolan understands first-hand, with some of her own family members having recently returned to Ireland from abroad, with their children; they are renting a modest house at a cost so exorbitant it makes saving for a mortgage nigh on impossible.
“And they both work so hard, it’s atrocious,” she says. Another relative, a primary school teacher, has just moved to Australia “because he couldn’t afford to rent anywhere here.”
And all too often her clients are couples with a baby, with all three “living in Nana’s box bedroom,” she says.
In one such case recently, when she made her usual aftercare visit to see a young family, newly settled into a log home, seeing their little girl showing off her very own bedroom, painted pink, was just too much. “I actually came back out to my car and cried,” says Nolan.