Housebuyers hoping to move into Ikea’s first flatpack housing development in the UK are now wishing they could finish the homes themselves after more than a year of repeated delays.
Trapped customers who have paid deposits for homes in the Bristol development say they have been left homeless and seen their mortgage deals soar in cost as they have endured continual false promises from the developers about when they can move in.
One buyer who has waited 14 months for the keys to her two-bed apartment said: “I am on my third mortgage and the rates keep going up. In my initial mortgage I was going to pay £380 a month and now it’s £520.”
She reserved her apartment in July 2021 and was told it would be ready in October that year, but there have been a series of delays since.
She said: “They have used all kinds of excuses, from the winter storms to Covid to Brexit shortages, drainage problems, timber shortages and third-party emergencies.”
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Most of the customers are first-time buyers relying on the Help to Buy loan scheme to afford their homes.
However, the government scheme ends on January 31 and if the building works are not completed by then, many people will not be able to complete their purchase, after a year of waiting to move in.
Ikea partnered with Skanska, the Swedish construction firm, in the 1990s to create BoKlok, a flatpack housing company whose name translates as “smart living”. Built in wood, the homes are completed in a factory and transported to site, reducing energy and waste.
Bristol was chosen as the flagship first development in the UK and the BoKlok on the Brook site in Knowle West, in the south of the city, was heralded by the council in 2020 as an innovative solution to the housing crisis. In March 2021 BoKlok announced it would be selling the first homes in a ballot system, with the names of those who wanted to put down a deposit being drawn out of a hat.
The first buyers began to exchange and pay their deposits in summer 2021, and were told by BoKlok they would be in their new homes by October or November that year.
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However, it wasn’t until May 2022 that the first 27 homes were completed and people moved into them. Since then, none of the other 71 homes have been completed.
Poppy Gates, 30, a commercial analyst in hospitality, is one of those let down. She said: “After a year of delays, excuses and no empathy or compassion from BoKlok, I am exhausted and have lost all faith in the company. It has been horrendous and an emotional rollercoaster.”
Alex, a hospital nurse, has paid a £10,000 deposit for a two-bed flat but is reliant on an additional £32,000 coming from the government’s Help to Buy scheme to complete the purchase. “I’ve had to move back in with my parents in Wiltshire, so I’m commuting into the hospital in Bristol every day,” he said.
The developers had to put people up in Airbnb properties over Christmas because the new homes had still not been finished.
A BoKlok spokeswoman apologised for the delays, which she said had been caused by “unforeseen issues on site as well as the ongoing challenges with regard to supply chain, materials and labour across the whole industry”.
