When one of the nation’s largest builder of rental homes couldn’t keep up with demand, they purchased a modular factory in Texas that will supply 50-60 new rental homes a month.
Austin-based Amherst Holdings is one of the nation’s largest owners of rental homes. According to its website, the company has acquired over 46,600 homes across America, worth over $7.6 billion. The full-service real estate platform is expanding its footprint throughout Tampa Bay, including a partnership with the City of St. Petersburg to increase the affordable housing supply through its Studio Built Homes division.
“What we’re doing here today, what problem we’re trying to solve is to create an affordable, scalable supply of housing for cities,” said Vice Chairman Spencer Lindahl.
He explained that about seven million people acquired homes they could not afford during the subprime mortgage crisis that began in 2007. Realizing those people – many with default now on their credit – would still need somewhere to live, Amherst began buying homes to offer as affordable housing rentals.
In recent years, Lindahl said his company encountered the acute problem of vacant real estate. With the cost of new home construction soaring, Genger Charles, managing director for Amherst, said the platform is trying to fill supply gaps in the rental industry through an innovative building process that can provide housing in just over a month.
Amherst recently acquired a modular factory in Texas that will produce 50-60 houses a month when fully operational. This is in addition to utilizing a partner factory in Georgia with plans to open a factory in Florida to support its expanding footprint in the state.
Opening modular factories closer to their projects allows them to cut transportation costs substantially.
While the modular homes are quicker and cheaper to construct, Joe Butler, head of Studio Built, said they are also of higher quality than most other houses. He added that factory workers build the homes in a controlled environment with 10 times the number of quality control checkpoints and more structural material.
Butler also noted the structures never experience sunlight or weather until unwrapped at the construction and set on the foundation.
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Gary Fleisher is the Editor in Chief of Modular Home Source and Offsite Builder. Email at [email protected]
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