KUALA LUMPUR (June 23): Demand for prefabricated homes is picking up in Malaysia, providing an alternative to traditional homes, particularly as the construction process has slowed down due to foreign worker shortage, supply chain delays, and the rising cost of building materials.
Lim Hui Yan, executive director of Gamuda Engineering Sdn Bhd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Gamuda Bhd, told The Edge that in particular, demand for digital industrialised building system (IBS) had increased in recent times due to its quicker project turnover, cost-effectiveness, and as it yields more consistent construction quality than conventional housing projects.
“The demand has shot up tremendously in the last one year, especially after the pandemic. Buyers are now looking for more functional and quality homes. So it makes more sense for houses to be manufactured and [for the industry to] not rely on foreign workers to just build homes for us,” said Lim at The Edge Sustainable Construction Forum on Friday (June 23).
The forum was officiated by publisher and group CEO of The Edge Media Group Datuk Ho Kay Tat, who also delivered the keynote address.
Other attendees of the forum included managing director of YTL Cement group Datuk Seri Micheal Yeoh, who delivered his welcome note, and Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) deputy chief executive I Zaid Zakaria.
Lim added that the idea of digital IBS is to reduce most of the labour intensive wet-works at the construction sites, which means lesser utilisation of manpower.
“Digital IBS moves the entire production of homes to be manufactured in a controlled environment. We imagine the homes we want to build digitally, then they are built by robots in a factory and we bring them by blocks to the site and assemble them,” she added.
IBS has long been practised in developed countries such as Germany, France, and Denmark.
Although it has been practised in Malaysia since the 1970s, high setting-up cost of manufacturing plants have made industry players shy away from IBS and opt for conventional construction methods.
However, with the difficulty of securing foreign workers, higher labour cost and the government’s push towards affordable housing, she said digital IBS could gain bigger traction.
CIDB's Zaid also urged for more private property developers to adopt higher IBS content into their projects that will benefit end users (house buyers).
“More private developers have adopted IBS, which is efficient, (encompasses) quality, and ultimately reduces our reliability on foreign workers” said Zaid at the forum on Friday.
CIDB previously reported that IBS implementation in government projects is currently at 84% in 2021, compared with 79.5% recorded in 2020, while private builders have increased IBS to 60% in 2021, compared with 41% a year before.