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Kelowna, B.C.-based modular housing company Built Prefab has acquired another local firm, Lake Country Modular Homes, to increase its catalogue of prebuilt offerings and expand into multifamily housing.
Built Prefab, founded in 2019, offers single-family homes aimed at premium buyers, with markets in Western Canada and the U.S.
Founded in 2002, Lake Country has a catalogue of duplex and fourplex builds, as well as single-family housing and homes for Indigenous Canadians that are sold in British Columbia.
“It reaches (a variety) of clients, it’s not just a focus on high-end modular,” said Keely Watts-Watling, the customer care and marketing manager of Built Prefab, when discussing the acquisition.
The brands of both companies will continue, with Built Prefab adding two employees from Lake Country to its team of four people.
About Built Prefab and Lake Country Modular Homes
Built Prefab uses factories in B.C. and Alberta to produce the components for its homes. The company designs the plan with its customer and orders the parts. Once the building permit is approved and the parts are ready (which takes three to six months), Built Prefab will ship over the components to the site and have contractors install and finish the building (taking approximately one to six weeks).
Lake Country worked with another Kelowna company, SRI Homes, to fabricate its components. Built Prefab will now use SRI Homes as its primary supplier of modular housing parts, Watts-Watling said.
Built Prefab focuses its homes on the mid- to high-end market, she explained, offering a range of higher-quality or more luxurious interior and exterior finishes and appliances among its options for homebuyers.
“If you want a really fancy kitchen, we can do that. Maybe changing the flooring from LVP (luxury vinyl plank) to hardwood. Pretty much anything is adjustable to your preferences.”
Built Prefab’s catalogue consists of nine standard home designs, ranging from the one-bedroom, 652-square-foot Garden model that starts at $260,000, to the three-bedroom, 1,824-square-foot Coast that is priced just under $520,000.
Lake Country's catalogue of homes is designed to be more affordable. The majority of its single home inventory is in the $200,000 range with one to two bedrooms. Lake Country’s offerings also include homes that are move-in ready, and manufactured homes for sale in mobile home parks.
For its multifamily builds, sizes vary from a two-storey model under 2,000 square feet to a three-storey fourplex that offers 6,600 square feet of living space.
Combining the two companies will mean streamlined project timelines, more options and greater value, Watts-Watling said.
Modular housing as a path to home ownership
Watts-Watling believes modular housing delivers significant value and will continue to become more prominent across Canada. Prebuilt housing, she said, is finished faster than stick-built homes and is more cost effective. The savings can offer potential buyers a chance to purchase at time when ownership of a traditionally built home might remain out of reach for many Canadians.
A report from the CSA Group found modular construction can move 25 to 50 per cent faster than conventional methods.
“It’s allowing faster, cheaper builds. There’s a lot of room for growth and more and more people are seeing that,” she said.
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