Ikea flat pack homes project flattened

Sales of BoKloks, the flat pack homes launched by Ikea last year, have gone down like a lead balloon and manufacture has now been suspended.

The hype at the time of the launch by Live Smart@Home, the UK developer, was such that there was talk of the need for a lottery system to allocate them to eager buyers.

Today’s picture is that only five have been sold on the first site in Gateshead. The statistics on this hand-full reads:

• One buyer is buying in full
• Four have opted for a shared-equity arrangement, a wheeze that trims back the size of deposit needed

In 2006, when the world looked much rosier, there was talk of 500 BoKloks a year being built.

They were priced at:

• £99,500 – for a one-bedroom flat
• £149,500 for a three-bedroom house.

In today’s Financial Times, BoKloks are reported to have become a victim of the economic downturn. Apart from the Gateshead project, BoKlok schemes elsewhere “have been put on ice”

The FT comments: “The Gateshead scheme’s market timing problem has been compounded by on-site delays, caused partly by the collapse into administration of the original building contractor.”

It reveals: “The arrival of the first occupants slid from February to September.”

The FT’s update reveals that:

• 30 BoKlok flats are now complete
• Six more will be ready for Christmas

Of those 36, nine are occupied (five having been sold and the other four being rented) and 13 are under construction.

Another four have been reserved for a “minimal” fee.

The construction of a further 44 has been “deferred indefinitely” says the FT.