For most of us, one of the purposes of adulthood is to to buy -or at least rent– a living place. However, as we enter the world real estatethe prices of the departmentsits design, location or little adaptation to our lifestyle end up disappointing us until we desert this dream.
change is a Mexican proptech with a little-known concept in Mexico, but with which we are strangely very familiar. Have you ever built buildings, houses or cars with Lego pieces or designed your ideal home in a video game? This company has transferred said training to real life.
Through a system mounted on an online platform, customers can design their home —according to their personality and their needs— buy it, assemble it and inhabit it in the area or entity that best suits them. All this in a period of no more than three months.
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Single? With children? How many rooms do you need? From the modules that the house will have to the finishes, The idea of Diego Kuri and Gilberto Gutiérrez has arrived in Mexico after a pandemic to break with the thousand and one problems that abound within the real estate sector.
The urgency of prefabricated houses in Mexico
The story originates in 2019, the year before the pandemic and when Kuri arrived in Miami, Florida. In Mexico, it is not common to see this type of housing. However, in the United States there was already a high demand for the premade houses.
To satisfy the deficit of units experienced by the North American country (of 3.8 million houses, according to the consultancy Freddy Mac), several companies make use of technology and prefabricated materials. With this strategy, you not only acquire a more affordable home, but also a personalized one.
In its neighboring country, Mexico, the reality is not very different. Even to its scarce offer of real estate, complications of mobilitythe shortage of public services and unsafety. And in the most populated cities, the rent and sale of housing is more expensive year after year.
Furthermore, the expansion of Airbnb in the capital and tourist areas of the country, it has driven residents out of their apartments, leaving them with little chance of acquiring a new unit—whether purchased or rented—due to rising prices.
This is how Diego Kuri and Gilberto Rodríguez saw a business opportunity in the sector. Although the houses are prefabricated, the detail with which change it differs from the other modular house firms is in the personalization.
Kuri thought that it might be a good idea to transfer this concept to Mexico; that each inhabitant of the properties of change could create a home adapted to your needstastes, lifestyle, climate and even territory.
The pandemic, the trigger and propellant of Kambio
In March 2020, the first cycle of various lockdowns in Mexico was announced. When spending most of the day in the house, the inhabitants realized that it did not meet their needs; some needed more space, had children, changed jobs or required another location.
The pandemic modified the housing preferences of the personal; They wanted to leave the city to live in other entities or look for a house with specific characteristics and thus satisfy their needs. In this way, Kambio is detonated and promoted”, says Kuri, in an interview for Alto Nivel.
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Almost three years after the first cases of Covid-19 were detected, it is estimated that more than 5.4 billion people —69.5% of the world population— are already vaccinated with at least one dose of the immune system against SARS-CoV-2, according to the latest figures from the report by Our World in Data.
Despite the fact that the pandemic has ended for most countries and the face mask has become an optional preventative, there are habits that are here to stay. The home officefor example, and classes—of virtually any kind—online.
By not having to commute to an office, by having the advantage of working from a computer, people have the freedom to rethink their home and location; move away from the big cities, move to the beach, to the forest”, says Kuri.
Thanks to technology and taking the United States as a success story, the simplest, most modern, ecological, elegant and even safest option for moving is found in the modular homessays one of the leaders of the firm.
The experience of designing the ‘perfect’ home
Initially, Diego and Gilberto began prefabricating the houses in national territory to send them to Miami, New York and California, United States. Subsequently, they were also offered to the Mexican consumer.
Our prefabricated modular technology allows each user to build their own project. Whether you want to build a house, a multifunctional or even a hotel, it can be built in less than three months”.
The process, according to the co-founder of changenot only lowers costsbut it allows the population to get a property in less time and with the possibility of being installed anywhere in the world.
Based on the interface of the car company Tesla and as if it were a video game, the platform allows you to build from two to eight modules, with a measure of 3.7 square meters each. On the same web page, the textures, colors, materials and finishes are also chosen.
To streamline construction processes, the company created several alliances with construction material companies. Subsequently, they continued with the real estate developers, who already own some land and seek to create inventory in short periods of time.
These houses are created in the entities of Querétaro, Monterrey, Hidalgo and Guadalajara. However, they reach the entire Republic. Until now, Kambio has delivered six homes in Mexico in its seed stage and has 150 in its catalogue.
According to the signature grand view researchthe value of the manufactured home market reached 89.3 billion dollars in 2019 and is expected to increase by 6.3% between 2020 and 2027.
The interest of the developers for this type of buildings is on the rise; we believe that next year there will be a greater presence of Kambio in the country, backed by the high quality of the materials produced in these same lands”, he adds.
The Kuri and Rodríguez firm expects to deliver 10 prefabricated properties before the end of 2022 and currently has projects for up to 70 houses agreed outside of CDMX that seek to integrate solutions in resource savings, energy efficiency and clean energy.
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