Modular and Factory Built Housing (FBH) is a promising trend in the building design and construction market. It is embedded in a broader practice of modular construction, which employs some degree of repetition in the construction process. FBH applies modular methods to residential projects by preassembling repeated modules off-site. The degree to which the modules are fully finished off-site varies, but they may be two-dimensional wall assemblies (“panelized” modules) or three-dimensional spaces (“volumetric” modules, see below illustration). Building significant sections off-site allows FBH to achieve cost and time savings, along with a range of other advantages.

FBH is a nascent sector that has been tested only on a small percentage of construction projects, leaving manufacturers, contractors, developers, customers, lenders, and policymakers with questions about how this industry will work and what it needs in order to scale up. This report focuses on the application of FBH and its ramifications for below market multifamily housing in the San Francisco Bay Area. In this region, a massive demand for housing and skyrocketing construction costs have added to a housing crisis that is severe not only for low income residents, but for middle income brackets as well. The specific concentration of our study is new housing development that is developed with the use of public funding and is in turn price controlled based on resident income.