Transcript: Case Study - EasyBuild

[Drone view of Upper Hutt, Wellington. View inside EasyBuild show home with nice interior, modular building. Image of Mike Fox, founding Director of EasyBuild. A person flicking through Multiproof plans on a table  Mike Fox in Easybuild factory talking to staff.]

Hi, I'm Mike Fox. I'm the founding Director of Easybuild build homes. What is no secret that there's been a shortage of affordable housing in New Zealand for quite some time. Here at Easybuild, we've created a modular housing business where we create flatpack houses, containerize them, build them here in our factory, here in Wellington, and then send them around the country.

[Person using saw to cut wood for Easybuild building. Mike Fox opening container that stores the houses with wooden materials and frames.]

We use unique construction method where we do a high degree of prefabrication at the factory, send them out a site where they assembled on site. This means we can produce high quality homes more quickly and efficiently than traditional building.

[Mike Fox in Easybuild factory talking to staff. Wide lense of factory including workshop areas. Mike Fox sitting at table. Powerdrill going into wood. A man is cleaning windows. Mike Fox entering EasyBuild Home.] 

The Ministry of Business Innovation Employment, MultiProof scheme is a very, very important part of our business. It gives us certainty when we approach a local authority, knowing that our plans already meet the building code, so that we know our system that those plans are going to be approved. It saves time and money and helps us to get projects underway. To date, we have built over 200 homes of MultiProof approval.  The quickest to date we've had is three working days. Consents can be granted up to twice as fast, and this saves their business and our customers time and money. We can also offer Kiwis increased certainty during the build process because the design has already been approved.

[Mike Fox onsite flicking through house plans. A man building pre fabricated frames in factory with hammer. A builder measuring on a ladder. External of the house cladding. EasyBuild Showhome in Upper Hutt. Interior shots of house including bedroom, lounge and kitchen area.]

MBIE has also developed BuitReady a voluntary off site manufacturer certification scheme that has been designed to support innovative and efficient building methods. This is a scheme for manufacturers which enables them to be certified and registered to produce modular building components. These schemes are a great way for streamlining the consent process and enabling people to get into homes quicker and more affordably.

[Building Performance, MBIE and NZGov Logos, www.building.govt.nz/multiproof]