A UK homebuilder backed by Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) has confirmed plans to build a mega-factory for flat-packed housing that will address the country’s housing crisis.
TopHat, which is majority owned by the investment bank, expects to manufacture 4,000 flat-packed homes a year at its new factory in Corby, Northamptonshire, from next year onwards.
The company, which is led by chief executive Jordan Rosenhaus and garnered £75mln of capital investment from Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), was founded in early 2016 and started producing flat-pack houses in early 2018 at a facility in South Derbyshire.
Its existing factory uses precision-led methods of construction and sustainable materials and can build homes within 10 weeks.
The first residential site to install its flat-pack buildings was Kitchener Barracks in Kent, which opened in the second quarter of 2019.
TopHat got planning permission to build three four-storey blocks of modular apartments at the site, comprising 96 homes, more than a third of which were affordable.
It also has a five-year contract with BoKlok UK, a home provider owned by Swedish multinationals Skanska and Ikea, to manufacture two and three-bedroom houses made from timber frames that use low energy consumption.
The homebuilder recently signed up to the Building Better framework, a partnership of housing associations backed by the National Housing Federation and delivered by Procurement for Housing.
Its plans to boost homebuilding capacity in the UK come amid a continuing rise in house prices, which have risen for an eleventh consecutive month, according to the Halifax house price index. House prices grew 1% in May and have increased 74% in the past decade.
House builders have been challenged by rising interest and mortgage rates, together with supply chain inflation and the impact of cladding remediation costs.
Sarah Coles, senior personal finance analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said that “as the cost-of-living bites, there will be plenty more who end up dropping back a rung or two” despite homebuyers seeking more space and seeking to use lockdown savings to buy property.