3D Printing in Real Estate: How It's Helping to Solve the Affordable Housing Crisis
Because of the heightened costs of materials during the pandemic, booming demand on the housing market, and the current global inflation; there’s a need to find ways to confront the nation’s affordable housing crises. With such, a lot of construction and real estate companies are coming forward with innovative solutions such as 3D printing.
When we talk about the future of housing, it’s not uncommon to imagine an automated 3D printer that can build entire homes in hours or days. While these futuristic visions haven’t fully come to fruition just yet, 3D printing technology is helping us take strides towards reaching this goal by reducing building costs and speeding up construction times.
Is 3D printing the future of Real Estate?
If you live in the United States, you’ve probably noticed that the real estate market has been on an upswing recently. The increased demand from buyers and limited supply from sellers has made homes more expensive than ever before.
In many metropolitan areas, owning your own home is out of reach for most people, even after they've saved up enough money to make a down payment. With limited options available, buying an affordable home in many cities might seem impossible. But it doesn't have to be!
That’s where a lot of startups and companies are hoping to solve this problem by 3D printing entire houses in just matter of few days.
How 3D printing of houses work?
3D printing of house is an innovation but it is the need of the hour. Unlike traditional construction technique to build a house on wood that typically takes around 6 to 12 months, the 3D printing machine is able to complete a project in a matter of few days. With such, high quality homes are now quite affordable. You won’t need a $150,000 savings to build a house out of wood now. 3D printing with concrete gives you a sturdy home that’s build to last a long time.
3D printing is a process of making three-dimensional house from a digital file. It involves laying down successive thin layers of concrete until the entire building is created. Each layer can be seen as a thinly sliced horizontal cross-section.
Benefits of using 3D printing technology in Real Estate Industry
In a typical 3D printer, concrete is extruded from a robot automotive machine that slices it into layers to form the walls, foundation and footing of a house. So, there’s no labor-intensive work as in typical construction technique. It just needs a little supervisory staff so there’s no such hassle as worker injuries or costs on workers’ compensation. It also reduces the material waste – that has literally plagued our construction industry and it also decreases construction time. Anyhow, it all comes down to the machine’s efficiency. With more knowledge and research in the field, experts are able to make machines that have good efficiency and practical applications.
Experts are hoping that 3D printing will eventually become the go-to method of construction in coming years rather building with traditional methods as wood. Because of the efficiency, material and time savings; homeowners will love sturdy homes of concrete with no issues like mold, termites, and moisture.
The future prospects
Despite the fast and effective means of building home, 3D printing still has some challenges. As the technology is new, there’s still lack of education among builders and so they are bit reluctant to utilize this method across practical applications.
Similarly, homeowners and buyers are also reluctant to invest such properties built with 3D printer. They’re in doubt at first as the technology is rarely used. Home buyers are also concerned about the use of concrete with the questions as if the house will stay always cold or not. But with modern appliances and equipped with monitoring system, homeowner is at better end to control temperature, security and more.
If we can obtain faster outputs with reduced production costs, 3D printing can revolutionize the real estate industry. Because of plethora of benefits of this technology, more construction giants are moving towards this innovative technology. More investors are rolling in for its betterment and optimization. So, there’s a chance of exponential growth of 3D printing market down the road.
Key takeaways
With the world’s population projected to reach 10 billion by 2050, we need to address the shortage of housing that’s occurred due to growing demand and rising prices over the last few decades. Thankfully, innovations in technology are helping us solve this problem by providing new ways to construct affordable housing quickly and efficiently. One of these technologies, 3D printing, has already been used to build small houses and even an apartment complex; it could revolutionize the construction and real estate industry in the coming years.