Forest City: 3 to 5 years for IBS to help build more affordable homes

Chinese developer Forest City said the Industrialized Building System (IBS) that they are championing here in Malaysia will help build more cheap homes, but that will not happen anytime soon.

Speaking to reporters while launching its new IBS plant here today, Country Garden Pacificview CEO Su Baiyuan said they have to wait for IBS to grow in scale before it is commercially viable to be used on a grander scale.

"Because of cost, we have wait for scale.

"Once the scale of IBS application increases, cost will drop significantly and this will induce the further decrease of house prices," he said when asked how Forest City's grandiose IBS launch will actually build homes that the common Malaysian can afford.

He said they will also need to wait for more demand.

"The production capacity (of the IBS plant) is 1 million square metres of housing, when we have 4 million square metres of housing demand, this will create financial stability and that will play a role (in allowing more widespread use of IBS)

"That will take 3-5 years," he said.

Su Baiyuan said the IBS technology will also increase demand for higher quality manpower and reduce reliance on foreign workers in Malaysia.