Kiwi on the move with kitset and transportable homes

If you have a bit of money to spend and you want accommodation that you could possibly rent out, it’s worth seeing what reputable house companies have on offer in this space.

Fraemohs Homes, founded 55 years ago by Danish-born Monni Fraemohs, builds full sized Scandinavian-style kitset homes and also has a range of small, prebuilt transportable homes.

Natalie Sisson, who heads up Fraemohs Wellington, has just posted an “as-new” Fraemohs Mackenzie Mono transportable showhome on Trade Me Marketplace, which is currently sitting on her lifestyle block. With a “Buy now” price tag of $208,300 on it, (Mackenzie Mono homes are $235,000 including GST, new) this 32 sq m timber transportable home has a bedroom and a bathroom, and was built with Fraemohs’ interlocking timber system to make it warm, healthy and low maintenance. Plus, up to extreme weather conditions.

This kind of accommodation is ideal for extra family, friends or as an Airbnb or an office, says Natalie. With gas connections and a heat pump it’s ready to go, and because it’s over 30 sq m, (32 sq) you’ll need building consent on your proposed site.

Fraemohs also has a larger transportable home, The Opuha Cottage is a two bedroom 58 sq m cottage priced from $295,000 including GST. A great option for a low maintenance home for ageing parents, teenagers, family and guests.

Natalie explains how the transport part of these homes works. “This one bedroom, one bathroom home is easily lifted from its current site in Whitemans Valley, onto a moving truck and transported anywhere in New Zealand,” she says. There are companies who specialise in coming and putting it on a truck and moving it in a day to your site.

Natalie is expecting to see a good response to the listing given the rise in popularity of kitset and transportable homes.

“The interest in these types of homes is driven by much quicker construction timelines. They take months instead of years, so they cost less, there is less maintenance and they suit a number of different purposes,” she explains.

Kitset homes aren’t always a straightforward DIY project even if you’re a handy person, warns Natalie. “The average home, for example, has over 300,000 components in it for a start,” she says.

And the Fraemohs solid timber system is not a traditional build so people often come to Fraemohs for a full build solution because they realise they don't need the headache of project managing the build from beginning to end.

“Project managing the entire project is a full on job, so we prefer when people just let us do it and they get to enjoy the finished home,” she explains.

The transportable Fraemohs homes are obviously very viable small homes - these solid timber homes are made of sustainable radiata pine, quality construction materials and use thermal modelling which means the build exceeds the current building code. But not everybody needs such high standards with their modular or transportable home.

If it’s for an office space, shed, painting studio or craft space they have portable cabins that range from $30,000 to $100,000 could be a perfect solution, says Natalie.

New Zealand company, SheShed is doing a roaring trade in Aotearoa and they’ve expanded to Australia. For people on the hunt for a home office, art studio or sleepout with a budget of $12,000 to $15,000 you’ll be able to get something at SheShed as long as you’re willing to put it together yourself or hire someone to do it. If you want a larger space with thicker walls, it will probably cost you $25,000 to $40,000 and SheSheds typically range from 5 sq m to nearly 30 sq m.

SheSheds became very popular during Covid when people needed home offices, says SheShed technical marketing specialist, Josh Bryant. But they’re also used for musical studios, hair salons, home gyms and backyard pubs.

The kitset sheds are supplied to the property on a pallet with stacks of double glazed windows and doors to unpack. Buyers are supplied with videos of the build process to help along the way. If you build the kitset on a steel or strong timber frame, they become transportable.

The beauty of SheSheds is that as long as you’re not building up against a boundary, they’re a pre-engineered kitset, and designed to be just under the maximum of 30 sq m. At this size you won’t usually need building consent which is a massive time and cost saving, says Josh.

If you decide to add a kitchen or bathroom, then it would be considered a dwelling and you’d need building consent, according to building code, he adds.

A SheShed is usually an accessory to a home and if you’re building a sleepout to building code, there has to be another building on site that has sanitation. Most people will use it as an extension to the main property and if people are staying there, they’ll come inside the home to use the bathroom.

For those using the SheShed as Airbnb accommodation they might build a smaller shed next to it as a dedicated bathroom pod. This is still easier than getting consent for a full dwelling, says Josh.

The SheShed marketer believes the surge of interest over February and March in kitset and transportable accommodation is due to the cost of building, the shortage of housing and the housing crisis. To help meet the housing demand, SheShed is bringing in a larger 50 sq m kitset (pictured above) which is consent-friendly, and has space for a kitchen, bathroom and two bedrooms.

“It’s much cheaper to consider a transportable home or a cabin than figure out ways to do an extension to an existing building,” he says.

And the good news is, resale of these sheds is not hard. “Someone bought a Sheshed from us in Blenheim. They wanted to build it too close to the road for the council’s plans and had to sell it. The owner built it, painted it, had it wired and it sold for more than she’d invested it,” he says.