Europe’s largest modular home manufacturers are based in the United Kingdom and are led by TopHat, whose current production is about 4,000 houses every year [1]. At the moment the U.K. is dominating the European modular and prefabricated market holding 35% of the overall production. Europe is expected to produce as many as 428,000 prefabricated homes in 2022 and as many as 148,700 of these homes will be built in the U.K. [2].
The Top 10 modular home manufacturers in Europe:
nº house/year | Based in | |
1. TopHat | 4,000 [3] | United Kingdom |
2. Ilke Homes | 3,000 [4] | United Kingdom |
3. Legal & General (L&G) Modular Homes | 3,000 [5] | United Kingdom |
4. Totally Modular | 2,000 [6] | United Kingdom |
5. Adria | 1,300 [7] | Slovenia |
6. K-Haus | 500 [8] | United Kingdom |
7. Luxhaus | 250 [9] | Germany |
8. Fertighaus Weiss | 240 [10] | Germany |
9. Jelovica | 200 [11] | Slovenia |
10. Vithaus | 200 [12] | Latvia |
The U.K. has been suffering from a housing crisis for over 30 years now [13], and modular construction seems to be offering a much-needed solution by providing affordable housing. As a result, U.K. modular home manufacturers have grown rapidly and are positioned at the top of the European market with companies like TopHat, Ilke Homes and Legal & General Modular Homes.
The European modular home production
The need for affordable and sustainable housing options in Europe is clear and prefabricated construction methods such as modular techniques have proved to offer a solution to it. As a result, off-site construction is growing rapidly and regions such as Scandinavia (Sweden, Norway and Denmark) are replacing traditional construction methods with modular and other prefabricated techniques, building as much as 45% of their homes with these modern methods of construction [14].
When we analyze the production of each modular home manufacturer however, those based in Scandinavian regions remain small in comparison to the large U.K. manufacturers. The U.K construction market at the moment is still highly traditional, with a percentage of homes being built with modular or prefabricated construction being relatively small representing only a 5% of the overall housing construction [14].
However, the growing housing demand in the highly populated U.K. (281 per square Km) [15] calls for massive production and companies such as TopHat, Ilke Homes and Legal & General Modular Homes seem to be providing more than a fast building solution. The larger modular home manufacturers in Europe aim to offer affordable, high-quality and sustainable homes that are built faster.
References:
- Fleisher, G. (2022, June 20) UK’s Top Hat Planning Largest Modular Home Factory in Europe Modular Home Source https://modularhomesource.com/uks-top-hat-planning-largest-modular-home-factory-in-europe/
- (Munich, 2012 January) Prefabricated housing market in Central and Northern Europe – Overview of market trends and development. Study extract Roland Berger
- Clark, T. (2022, June 20) Goldman Sachs-backed modular firm plans Europe’s biggest housing Factory Inside Housing https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/goldman-sachs-backed-modular-firm-plans-europes-biggest-housing-factory-76156
- (2022, January 6) Ilke losses top £30m again The construction indexhttps://www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/news/view/ilke-losses-top-30m-again
- Delahunty, S. (2022, March 14) L&G reveals annual homes target of 10,000 after record £2bn in post-tax profit Inside Housing https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/lg-reveals-annual-homes-target-of-10000-after-record-2bn-in-post-tax-profit-74683
- Champ, H. (2019, March 21) Whitefriars Housing Association to trial modular homes Housing Today https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/whitefriars-housing-association-to-trial-modular-homes/5098521.article
- About Adria Adria https://adria-home.com/about-adria
- About K-Haus K Haus https://www.k-haus.co.uk/about-us-khaus-kampa
- Von dem Knesebeck, G. (2018, August 27) Our 9 Favourite German Prefab Companies Blue Future Partners https://www.bfp.vc/our-9-favourite-german-prefab-companies/
- Gronkvist, F. (2020, August 18) List of Prefab Home Manufacturers in Europe: Our Top 12 Picks Product MKR https://www.productmkr.com/europe-prefab-home-manufacturers/
- Jelovica hise – Company Profile Issuu https://issuu.com/jelovicaokna/docs/jelovica-houses-profile
- Prefabricated Homes Vita Haus https://vithaus.eu
- Geraghty, L. (2022, February 28) Why does the UK have a housing crisis? Big Issue https://www.bigissue.com/news/activism/why-does-the-uk-have-a-housing-crisis/
- Bertram, N., Fuchs, S., Mischke, J., Palter, R., Strube, G., and Woetzel, J. (2019, June) Modular construction: From projects to products McKinsey & Company https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/business%20functions/operations/our%20insights/modular%20construction%20from%20projects%20to%20products%20new/modular-construction-from-projects-to-products-full-report-new.pdf
- U.K. Population (live) Worlometer https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/uk-population/