Architect to offer homes for £40,000

Published on Saturday 5 July 2008 14:44

HOME buyers will be able to buy a kit house online for as little as £40,000 and have the keys within 10 days if the vision of a Scottish architect takes off.

Andrew Stoane aims to develop a house building system for "future urban living" to help tackle the shortage and affordability of housing.

He has received funding from the Edinburgh Pre-Incubator Scheme (EPIS) and the Edinburgh Technology Fund to support the launch of his company, Anabo. He will buy plots, obtain planning permission, lay building foundations and buy pre-fabricated houses from a construction company.

Customers would visit Anabo's website to find a location, order their house, configure it to their own requirements and arrange the finance. Within 10 days the house should be ready for occupation.

While the concept is at an early stage, Stoane plans to have a prototype house constructed at a site in Edinburgh by the autumn and a pilot scheme up and running in Scotland next year. His aim is to expand Anabo into a global housing supplier.

He said: "As far as I know there aren't any other companies which will manage the whole process from start to finish. I came up with the idea to tackle the problem of affordability. With the average UK house price now 200,000, it is virtually impossible for a 21-year-old on 20,000 to buy their first home. Also, as an architect, it annoys me that the housing industry is refusing to modernise, and I want to change that."

Stoane said the total cost of a home will be 1,000 per square metre. He will offer a range of designs, including a 40 square metre pod for 40,000 aimed at first-time buyers, and a 120 square metre family home for 120,000.

Anabo is one of the companies exhibiting at the EPIS Tech Expo at the University of Edinburgh on Thursday, which is intended to attract investment for start-ups.

Another is Mysnocat.com, a firm supported by EPIS and with investment from Christopher Weston, the former owner of Phillips Auction House, to develop a tool to help online traders.

Mysnocat.com founder Simon Montford is working with programmers and artificial intelligence experts at the University of Edinburgh on a tool that can be plugged into e-commerce sites, such as eBay, to make it easier for users to sell goods online. It will also act as a networking site for collectors who trade online.

EPIS, a joint venture between the University of Edinburgh and Scottish Enterprise, houses around 50 start-ups which it helps with a loan of 10,000, incubator space, a mentor and access to academics and equipment.

Adrian Smith, director of EPIS, said: "While other incubators only rent space to start-ups, being part of EPIS gives companies access to facilities at the university usually only available to academics and students."