What is CUBED and how can you participate in the creation of an apartment?

Did you know that people spend an average of 2-4 years looking for an apartment after they have made the decision to buy it? As the main reason for this, Eriks Kehris, an experienced real estate developer, cites the mismatch between supply and demand. The opportunity to personalize, customize and get an efficiently functioning home, which is not always offered by developers, is becoming more and more important. The Cubed company has set its main task to connect the interests of the developer and the apartment buyer. They are actually very similar, but both parties don’t realize it. Developers engage in complete guessing about what buyers want, take a lot of risks, and when the project is finished, they don’t want to hear anything about it. In addition, it is often believed that 75% of problems will be solved by time. On the other hand, the buyer has fewer and fewer opportunities to influence which properties are developed in general. The development process itself, compared to other industries, is very outdated. Also, the options to get the property that buyers really want are limited, which is why the average time that people spend looking for a new home is also so long. A trend that we rarely see from developers is paying attention to what will remain after all the apartments have been sold. What contribution do these projects make to society? In Latvia, priority is given to finishing everything quickly and simply, not to the fact that we will live in this environment. The concepts “self” and “society” are extremely separated, rather than understood as mutually inclusive. On the other hand, foreign practice shows an example of how much people care about how the project will affect the society in the place where it is made. The world has developed standardized and factory-built buildings that can offer better, higher quality, reduce stress for developers, speed up construction times and provide customers with a potentially faster understanding of what the quality of this home will be. However, these are things that we do not use at all in Latvia. Mostly manufacturers work exclusively abroad, because there is a higher solvency, however, currently the Ministry of Economy is promoting a new project to help municipalities build more affordable housing in the regions. Cubed has created a multi-storey wooden modular building project for the Ministry of Economy, after which the regulations will be created and the development of the industry will be further directed, providing the society with modern and functional buildings. By developing 3D design, it is possible to standardize processes much more and make them easier for the client and the developer. This allows you to end up with much higher quality projects. Although the first thought is that the main difference is only in the appearance of the drawings, this approach has many other advantages, such as BIN (building information modules). BIN allows you to plan more precisely and to add additional information to each item in the project separately, for example the data of a cooperation partner, some research or other useful and relevant information, which is used not only in the planning stage, but also in the construction stage of the building. This is the direction where design will develop in the future. Any project that economizes on the planning stage then loses 10x during construction. Focusing so that more people can afford high-quality, affordable and easy-to-manage buildings.

By reducing the period of time in which such a building can be obtained, buyers also have the opportunity to influence how these same buildings will look. This concept is not new, it already works successfully in the Netherlands, where people gather in groups of like-minded people and before the construction of the building express and agree on what they would like to see in the project. It all started with the fact that there is a certain number of people in a certain location who would be interested in an apartment. Instead of spending an extensive period of time searching for a possible option on classifieds portals, there is an alternative – the Cubed platform. When entering the platform, it is possible to choose an apartment that is suitable according to various factors. Choose according to your financial needs, a layout that can be both reduced and increased, and then Cubed will place it in one of the standardized buildings. If enough interested people gather in this location, then the project will be fully implemented. In sequence, interested parties are presented with plots of land that are potential for this project, the price is approved and the construction is carried out. In fact, these are projects directed by the people themselves and the community, where you can say “we need this”. Everyone has the opportunity to draw their own plan, take the whole floor or even two or three. Everything is individualized. When people have gathered up to 50%, then the price of the house is reserved as it is at the given moment. Next, potential buyers have the opportunity to decide whether they are satisfied with this price. Since there is already a standardized model, or a digital twin for this building, it is transferred to the factory. From the moment the model is handed over to the moment it is brought to the facility is about half a year. During February, all planned locations will be published on the platform. The planned projects range from 6 apartments to buildings up to 30. You can see how many people have already applied and at what stage the specific project is.