From Sweden to Ōwairaka: First of three modular timber housing blocks up

The first apartment block, with modules based on a system from Sweden, at 159 Hendon Ave, on the Richardson Rd corner. Photo / Property Partners Group

The first of three modular apartment blocks, designed and made in a south Auckland factory but based on a Swedish system, are up at an Ōwairaka site.

Steve Mikkelsen, the chief executive of Property Partners Group, said a company that the business owns built the six-level block with the first 36 units and would soon build the next two.

The units were made in a Wiri factory, then trucked to the site and craned into place, one on top of the other.

A video clip shows the construction of the first block where the first stage of the $90 million project has risen on land that Property Partners bought from Kāinga Ora - Homes and Communities, with the rider that some affordable housing be built there.

Kāinga Ora is selling 55 to 60 per cent of all its large-scale Auckland lots to pay for its rebuild of the city’s state housing stock. Mark Fraser, the agency’s urban development and delivery general manager, told the Herald last June: “We are selling several billion dollars worth of land. Auckland has 1397 hectares of state house land and we’re selling 55 to 60 per cent of large-scale holdings.”

How the three Evergreen blocks of housing units on the Richardson Rd/Hendon Ave corner are planned to look once finished. Photo / Property Partners Group

The Ōwairaka site is one block of that land and Mikkelsen said half the units in the first block are being sold to KiwiBuild buyers, because Kāinga Ora’s sale stipulations demanded some of the units be made available under that scheme.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) featured the Mt Albert project under its construction sector accord, saying market demand existed for suppliers who could deliver quality housing at pace and scale.

MBIE features around 10 companies a year, showing what businesses are doing, Mikkelsen said.

Property Partners had investigated offsite manufacturing at scale, researching methods globally, and ultimately decided that the Swedish model was the best to bring to New Zealand, Mikkelsen said.

“We went to the USA, China and Europe but the Swedish model was the right model for us. We aligned ourselves with a Swedish company, sharing ideas, etc. We’re working with a consultant from Sweden, exclusive to us, talking to them on every aspect from design to delivery and manufacturing techniques,” Mikkelsen said, though he was reluctant to provide details about the Swedes for fear of competitors.

The first block when it was under construction, on the corner of Hendon Ave and Richardson Rd. Photo / Property Partners Group

The timber modules were different to steel modules from China, which some Kiwi companies had investigated and imported, Mikkelsen said.

Property Partners is using timber from Nelson Pine and Rotorua’s Red Stag.

Half of the affordable project will be sold to KiwiBuild-eligible buyers, Mikkelsen said.

Two-bedroom units are going for around $750,000 via KiwiBuild but free market places would sell for more than $850,000 at the project.

This is the fourth project Property Partners has done and a fifth is in the planning.

An apartment module built at Wiri is craned into position at the site. Photo / Property Partners Group

The use of offsite manufacturing techniques was becoming more popular here for small-scale builds. Property Partners’ subsidiary Evergreen Modular is using timber volumetric modular construction, a form of offsite manufacturing in which buildings are put together by connecting a series of pre-built modules and stacking them on top of each other to build apartments.

The first block showed what could be done on a larger-scale project for 108 apartments in Richardson Rd, Ōwairaka, Mikkelsen said.

Three six-storey apartment buildings are planned for the entire site, containing 216 modules.

Nearly there with the apartment module at the site. Photo / Property Partners Group

The project is being built with New Zealand-sourced and carbon-positive timber volumetric modules, which Mikkelsen said is a first in New Zealand.

Property Partners showed off a video of the scheme of its Evergreen Modular Construction assembling and building a total of 108 apartments on three neighbouring blocks. Each building will have 36 units. Each apartment is made up of two modules, so all up, 216 modules are being built.

Property Partners has a factory in Wiri where it is making the units in what is essentially a pilot plant, but again, Mikkelsen was reluctant to say where.

The first apartment block, with modules based on the system from Sweden, at 159 Hendon Ave. Photo / Property Partners Group

“This is our learning plant so we’re looking at systems that can be scaled up to a much larger, purpose-built facility,” Mikkelsen said.

The Wiri site has potential room to expand.

“We’re currently in the mid phases of designing a purpose-built factory that has much more capacity. It will be automated,” Mikkelsen said.

Up to 4000 modules or 2000 apartments could be built annually once Property Partners expanded, he said.

“We’re also looking at the retirement sector. Affordable and social housing is what we’re doing at the moment but there’s student and hotel rooms that can be done,” Mikkelsen said.

In the first building, all modules were stacked in place. Then lift shafts and circulation corridor spaces were completed.

“At the same time, we were also completing the brick veneer and aluminium cladding facade,” he said.

In 2018, Property Partners conducted research on its system. In 2019 prototypes were built. In 2020, the business built its first three-level apartment block in Māngere East, Mikkelsen said.

Kāinga Ora's modular development at the Great North Rd/ Point Chevalier Rd intersection. Photo / Jason Oxenham

Modular construction is being used elsewhere. On the corner of Great North Rd and Point Chevalier Rd, a block of apartments imported fully-built from China has risen, surprising some locals but with the aim of housing people aged 55-plus moving into or from existing state housing.

Vietnamese apartments are also going on a state-owned North Shore site in what the importer says will be New Zealand’s largest off-site manufactured housing construction project. Asian-headquartered TLC Modular, partly owned by Goldman Sachs, imported 182 fully-built housing units on four ships to stack on top of each other on the corner of Lake Rd and Fraser Ave.

Twelve Guangzhou-built container-style Hobsonville Point modular homes were imported by Tony Houston, managing director of Neilston Group, which owns the pioneering Modul building system.

Mikkelsen said he had visited Chinese modular housing factories but was disgusted about the conditions and did not like the products.

He prefers the Swedish model.

Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 23 years, has won many awards, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.