The £6.2 million project is being delivered by Clanmil Housing Group and will be the first social homes in Northern Ireland delivered using off-site construction.
Each new home will be built using a number of steel-framed modules, being manufactured and fully fitted-out by McAvoy at its Lisburn factory, before being craned into position on site.
The modules will be delivered to the Carrickfergus site complete with kitchens, bathrooms, windows, flooring and decorated walls, ready to be brought together to create modern, high quality homes. Using off-site construction will help reduce the build time for the Carrickfergus development by 56 weeks compared to traditional site-based building methods, delivering 40 new homes in just nine months.
Completion is scheduled for spring 2019.
Clare McCarty, Group Chief Executive at Clanmil, said: "There are currently 24,000 households in desperate need of homes across Northern Ireland. We want to help get those families off the housing waiting list and into good homes as quickly as possible. The rising cost of building materials and a labour skills shortage in the construction industry, compounded by uncertainty due to Brexit, makes this extremely challenging using traditional methods. That's why Clanmil has been looking at alternative ways to deliver social homes.
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"The off-site manufacture of homes has many advantages – significant time savings, better build quality and improved health and safety due to factory production processes, and a much lower environmental impact both from manufacture and over the building's entire life cycle."
David Orr, Chief Executive of the National Housing Federation, said: "The UK's housing shortfall is only going to be addressed by radical innovation in building practices, such as modular housing. This method of construction has real potential to help address the current housing shortage.
"In the UK, the Government sees off-site manufacture as a huge opportunity and has promised to support housing providers to build more homes in this way. It is really exciting to see a Northern Ireland housing association and a Northern Ireland manufacturer working together to harness innovation that can deliver homes in up to half the normal time."
Eugene Lynch, McAvoy Group's Managing Director, added: "It is fantastic to see such a progressive provider of social housing as Clanmil who are looking at more innovative ways of delivering high quality homes, more quickly to address the housing shortage in Northern Ireland.
"This scheme is the first to use our new modular housing solution and successfully demonstrates its application for apartments, detached and semi-detached homes. It also illustrates our capabilities as principal contractor.
"We are not just supplying building modules to a pre-prepared site but are responsible for the full range of services for Clanmil – from preparation and clearance of this brownfield site to design, manufacture, factory fitting out, building installation, landscaping and infrastructure. We look forward to creating a much needed and vibrant new community for this area."
(LM/CM)
