Bo-Klok: Live Long and Prosper?

Well actually BoKlok means Live Smart and is the teasingly anagramatic brand for an IKEA flat packed house. Take four days to build from scratch. There are already 3,000 of them in Scandanavia.

BBC Breakfast reckons the UK is building 150,000 homes when it should be 200,000 and that this can help and Gateshead MBC agrees. LOL thinks they are a bit pricey at £150,000 for a three-bedder, whereas a conventional two-bed flat in the area is £70,000-£90,000.

But IKEA quote high quality and full fit out. Quite a way from the £60,000 (plus land) for Irish-built prefabs as inspected by John Prescott at Manchester G-Mex in 2005. The above image is from some key worker homes in London with rents of £100 (one bed) to £150 (two bed) per week.

Restrictions on purchasers in Gateshead will rule out those who own another home, those with household income above £35,000, and those who are not local. But some Housing Corporation or DCLG cash or a generous shared equity scheme is needed in our opinion to make these a viable first home option for target home seekers.

Another angle on this is this no-change-from-half-a-million Grand Design of the Huf House in Surrey.