modularhousing

My guest this week is Alexis Rivas. Alexis is the co-founder and CEO of Cover, which is pioneering a new way of building homes. It’s no surprise to anyone that aspects of our housing market is broken. The market is undersupplied and littered with regulatory issues. The homebuilding process has also not changed for the better part of a century. Alexis is attacking the problem and has taken a leaf out of the car industry’s learnings to create a similar production process for home building. In our discussion, we talk about his idea of lego pieces for homes, how they’re refining production with backyard homes first, and how this may change the way people buy and sell homes in future. Please enjoy my conversation with Alexis Rivas. Listen to Founders Podcast Founders Episode 136 - Estee Lauder Founders Episode 288 - Ralph Lauren For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here. ----- This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus is the modern research platform for leading investors. Stretch your research budget with flexible expert calls you can trust. At a fraction of the cost of traditional expert networks, Tegus customers pay only what an expert charges – with zero markups and no confusing call credits – netting an average 70% savings. Don’t want to conduct a full hour call? Tegus offers the ability to schedule 30-minutes, an offer you won’t find anywhere else. And they don’t stop there. With white-glove custom sourcing for every project and robust compliance measures, including a dedicated 50+ analyst team that vets every call transcript, Tegus ensures your privacy and protection. For a limited time, you can trial Tegus for free by visiting tegus.co/patrick. ----- Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.  Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus Show Notes (00:03:39) - (First question) - Supply and demand situation writ large for housing in the United States (00:06:34) - Lack of workforce growth to meet housing development needs (00:10:23) - Insight into “lego piece” style construction (00:11:41) - The comparison to automotive manufacturing (00:16:15) - Strategic description of a good “lego piece” from Cover (00:20:08) - Utility continuity comparison between panels versus tradition construction (00:21:05) - Potential criticism from skeptical contractors (00:22:53) - The marginal cost for a typical home buyer (00:25:59) - The role of software in the business (00:28:47) - Insight into support model and “The Last Mile” theory in construction and possible solutions to combat errors during assembly (00:30:46) - Support system integration for inevitable repairs (00:32:17) - The changing reality of initial ideas as projects are completed (00:34:27) - Building factories and streamlining production logistics (00:37:28) - Focusing on constraints and an example relatable to real life scenarios (00:38:37) - The value of moving slow to perfect processes early on versus an all in head first approach (00:40:09) - The scope of ambition over the next several decades (00:41:18) - The evolution of homes and how they could change based of consumer wants (00:43:37) - Vertical capabilities of cover panels (00:43:21) - Types of panels that could be introduced moving forward (00:45:14) - Timeline for Cover expansion into new states (00:46:06) - Advice for upcoming entrepreneurs when building similar business models (00:47:58) - The kindest thing that anyone has ever done for Alexis

Last week we learnt how to build a £100 million property development company with none other than the legendary Tom Bloxham MBE, co-founder and Chairman of Urban Splash.

This week we’re back with Tom to discuss the future of the UK property market.

But as always, first we have our news story of the week which you can find by clicking here.

It’s a report undertaken by Generation Rent - a non-profit organisation that campaigns for private renters.

Over the last few years since the tax changes were introduced, we’ve had numerous reports of landlords exiting the sector and rents getting pushed through the roof, punishing tenants and leaving them out of pocket. However, this new report makes for interesting reading.

Tune in to find out why Rob D thinks this is a pretty sensible piece of property research and also find out what exactly made Rob B laugh out loud.

It’s also worth taking a look at the graphs and charts too - the whole thing makes for a very interesting read indeed.

Now, what exactly is in store for the property market? We’re with Tom Bloxham MBE once again to discuss the future of the UK property sector.

At the top of Tom’s list is modular housing - something which hasn’t hugely taken off in the UK yet, but it won’t be long before it does if Urban Splash has anything to do with it.

In this episode we learn why Urban Splash made the bold move to modular housing - was it the huge number of people shunning new build houses? Was it the need for quality and design combined?

The ability to completely configure a home to an individual's requirements has slowly started to catch on, as has being able to make internal changes without altering the structural integrity of the building - a win-win.

Tom takes us through his vision to reinvent modern housing; from investing in factories to develop greatly designed structures, to allowing customers to personalise every detail and make each property completely bespoke.

It’s not all plain sailing though, as modular housing hasn’t taken off in the UK in the same way it has elsewhere like the USA. What does Tom think is the barrier?

Is it attitude, personal preference or the steeper price point?

We also delve into what excites Tom - what is it about a city or town which captures his attention in a bid to reinvent it the Urban Splash way?

Does he want to make communities where pedestrians are more important than cars? Does he want to make sure kids can be safe playing on the streets again? We really delve into what makes a great location for Urban Splash to make their next mark.

We also discover that political drivers are a consideration for Tom and his team. He also gives us his insight on what’s in store for the rental sector and why he thinks more of us are renting - a trend which he doesn’t see changing any time soon.

If that wasn’t enough, Tom fills us in on his plan for a residential fund so people can co-invest in residential markets. He also shares his thoughts on what traditional buy to let landlords can do to compete with institutional players who are entering the residential property market.

This is a fantastic insight into Tom’s world and a great listen. We certainly learnt a lot! Make sure you tune in - it’s one you definitely don’t want to miss.

Hub Extra: As always, we’ve dug out a handy resource for Hub Extra this week; it’s another cracking video which you can access here. There’s a backstory to this, so listen to the podcast to find out why the Robs are recommending this, this week.

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