Bunnings NZ have released their first round of flatpack homes

Housing affordability is the hottest topic in town right now, and has been for the past few years.

So, it’s not surprising, people are queuing to have a Bunnings flatpack house built – one builder has a long waiting list and Bunnings admits they have had more enquiries in the past few days. While the company won’t tell us numbers, one builder was told of 100 queries in just a few hours last Friday.

They do work out to be cheaper than buying an existing house, thanks to the prefabrication. And, let’s be clear, Bunnings does have a good product, but it isn’t the only company doing this. (It pays to do your research.)

Flatpack houses are probably not the answer for our big cities, where land values are so high. And they may not be the answer for new subdivisions, which also tend to have high land prices and caveats determining the size and look of houses.

Which leaves small towns and land on the outskirts of our cities and towns. And this is where flatpack housing comes into its own. If you can pick up a piece of land for less than $300k, you can be in a house for well under $500k. If you’re prepared to downsize to 60 square metres, you can probably do it for a lot less than that.

And you get all the benefits of a new home – double glazing, heat pump, good insulation, solid materials, the latest appliances. You can add a big deck for outdoor living. And they can be built in less than three months. What’s not to love?

For a long time, we have known “new thinking” is needed to tackle the housing crisis. Well maybe this is it.

Forget tiny houses on wheels, which are just wooden caravans and 21 square metres if you’re lucky. That’s no way to live on a permanent basis, except maybe for a very small number of people who just love the lifestyle.

The smaller of the flatpack houses are pretty tiny – Bunnings squeezes two bedrooms into 60 square-metres ($61,135 + GST), which requires a new mindset if you are downsizing. But it can be done.

Already, we know many of the Bunnings houses have gone to country locations and have been bought by a mix of first-home buyers, retirees downsizing, farmers building cottages for farm workers, people wanting a holiday home, and others investing in rental accommodation.

Several flatpack houses have popped up on large sections in Wainuiomata, where they are being rented.

Steve and Sharleen of Te Horo, near Otaki, have shown us the inside of their 101 square-metre Bunnings house, which cost them around $200k all-up once services were connected. This is a pretty smart house. We know a family building a beach house not far away, which is costing $2.5 million (and that’s just the build). It certainly puts $200k into perspective.

How have have we got to the point where it costs so much to build a house, any house?

We want our homes to be warm, dry and healthy, and it seems there is a minimum price to pay for this. But why do building material costs continue to escalate on an (almost) weekly basis? We know of one Coromandel builder who says every time he picks up a new order for a project he is working on, the costs have increased – we’re talking nails, screws… the basics.

• This article originally appeared on stuff.co.nz