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3d printed home by COBOD International and Havelar
Portugal-based 3D printing construction startup Havelar built Portugal's first printed home.

COBOD International and Havelar

  • Startup Havelar built Portugal's first 3D printed home using COBOD's popular printing system.
  • The walls of the two-bedroom, 861-square-foot home were printed in 18 hours.
  • The Portugal-based startup says it can build faster and cheaper than conventional construction.

If companies like Portugal-based Havelar have their way, the future of affordable housing will look like perfectly stacked strands of spaghetti (as in, they'd be 3D printed).

Printing-construction startup Havelar says it can build a new home in less than two months while pricing it significantly below market, all with the help of a robotic construction printer.

It may sound like an impossible claim, but its latest project — and Portugal's first 3D printed home — has made its case.

Havelar completed an 861-square-foot, two-bedroom home in Porto, Portugal, in late April.
living and dining room in 3d printed home
According to data from Idealista, the median price of a home in Porto, Portugal, is 3,392 euros per square meter.

COBOD International and Havelar

Following the success of its project, the startup is now touting its ability to build houses for 1,500 euros per square meter, or about $150 per square foot.

That prices its new dwelling at about $130,000 — half the median cost of similarly sized homes in Porto, according to data from Spanish real estate company Idealista.

Like Havelar, proponents of printer-built homes have been making lofty promises about the futuristic tech.
home being 3d printed
Havelar was able to achieve its low cost by printing efficiently and quickly, according to COBOD.

COBOD International and Havelar

Giant automated printers are increasingly being lauded as a way to build high-quality natural disaster-resistant homes faster and cheaper while reducing waste and labor.

However, like any nascent tech, the construction 3D printing industry has been facing growing pains, such as the high cost of printing materials and an underdeveloped workforce.

Printers have limitations, too: Most can only build walls, while the rest of the home has to be completed conventionally.
wall and living room of 3d printed hom
Philip Lund-Nielsen, cofounder of COBOD, told Business Insider in late 2023 that the company has sold over 70 of its "BOD2" construction printer systems to companies worldwide.

COBOD International and Havelar

But printing can significantly slash build time — so much so that the walls of Havelar's home were printed in 18 hours, according to COBOD, the 3D printer's manufacturer.

Despite how it sounds, a printer-built home doesn’t have to look unrecognizably futuristic.
bedroom inside a 3d printed home
The layered walls are a visual signature of construction 3D printers.

COBOD International and Havelar

Save for the layered-looking walls, a signature of 3D printers, Havelar's build looks like any new two-bedroom house.

It wouldn’t be a modern home without an open-concept kitchen and dining room.
dining room inside 3d printed home
The two-bedroom home has a dining room and kitchen.

COBOD International and Havelar

Like Texas-based Icon's first luxury printed home, the contrasting colors and textures of the wood finishes and the printer's cement mix create a contemporary and trendy feel.

But don’t start pulling out money for the downpayment.
walls of 3d printed home
Rodrigo Vilas-Boas, a cofounder of Havelar, said the company wants to "team up with partners who see themselves in building sustainable and accessible communities," according to COBOD's news release.

COBOD International and Havelar

Plans to sell the home are "currently unclear," a spokesperson for COBOD told Business Insider. Havelar did not respond to a request for comment from BI.

If you want to move into an affordable printed home, it might be best to wait for Havelar’s next projects.
The exterior of a model home at Icon and Lennar's 100-home 3D printed community.
This is a model home at Icon and Lennar's 100-home community in Texas. When complete, it will be the world's largest neighborhood of printed houses.

Icon

Otherwise, be prepared to pay more in the US.

Rodrigo Vilas-Boas, cofounder of Havelar, said in COBOD's news release that its construction methods would allow first-time homebuyers to acquire their dream home in a good neighborhood for €150,000, about $162,000.

That's a steep price difference from Lennar and Icon's upcoming community of 100 3D printed homes near Austin, where the first six units were priced between $476,000 and $566,000.

Even steeper, homes at Icon's development in Marfa, Texas, a seven-hour drive east, start "in the upper $900,000s," according to its website.

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Real Estate, Tech, 3d-printed-home, cobod, 3d-printer
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