Saudi Arabia’s housing ministry has signed an agreement with Silicon Valley-headquartered prefab builder Katerra to supply 4,101 housing units around the country.
Founded in 2015 by a group of real estate and electronics chiefs, Katerra aims to disrupt the construction industry by integrating design, component manufacturing, and site assembly together under its digital platform.
Backed heavily by Japan’s SoftBank, it claims to have $3.7bn worth of building orders so far.
The deal this week follows a memorandum of understanding signed in October last year setting out a plan for Katerra to establish up to eight factories in Saudi Arabia capable of manufacturing 50,000 housing units a year.Â
The bulk of the new homes will be Mecca (2,482 units) and Madinah (1,043 units) with the regions of Baha, Jouf and Qassim sharing the rest, reports Saudi Gazette.Â
The agreement was signed by Ash Bhardwaj, Katerra’s president for Asia and Middle East.
Image: Inside Katerra’s factory in Phoenix, Arizona (Katerra)
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