Why modular, when the plot is in another country
Building a house in a country you do not live in fails for one reason far more often than any other: nobody is there. Traditional site-built construction needs continuous, informed supervision — someone who notices that the wrong tile arrived, that a wall is 15 cm off, that a trade has gone quiet for a fortnight. From 1,500 km away, you find out weeks later, and by then the correction is expensive.
Modular construction changes the geometry of that problem. The great majority of the work happens in a controlled factory environment, not on your plot: structure, insulation, airtightness, services, joinery, bathrooms and finishes are executed and checked indoors, to measured tolerances, before anything travels. What that buys an international client is not speed — although it is faster — but verifiability. Progress is a physical object in a known place that can be photographed, measured, inspected and walked through, rather than a status report from a distant site.
It also front-loads the decisions. A modular project requires the specification to be closed before production starts, which is precisely the discipline a remote client needs: fewer variations, fewer mid-build phone calls about choices you cannot properly assess from abroad, and a budget that behaves. The on-site window — foundations, craning, connections, commissioning — is short, which in turn limits your exposure to local weather, access restrictions and neighbours.
Where we build
We develop and build in Spain and across the main European markets. In practice the work divides into three situations, and which one applies changes the logistics, the paperwork and the timeline far more than the design does.
| Destination | What this means for the project |
|---|---|
| Spain — including Marbella and the Costa del Sol, the Balearics and the Costa Blanca | Our home market. Design, permitting, manufacturing and assembly run end to end in house, to the Spanish Technical Building Code. |
| EU destinations — Portugal, Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Greece, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Poland, Ireland | Modules travel as goods within the single market: no customs clearance. Design and structural calculations are produced to the Eurocodes with the national annex of the destination, and permitting follows the local authority's own procedure. |
| Outside the EU — United Kingdom, Switzerland, Albania, Russia | Same engineering discipline, plus import formalities, customs documentation and, where relevant, a sea or ferry leg. These are planned and priced into the logistics package from the outset rather than discovered later. |
If your plot is somewhere not on that list, the question worth asking is not whether a house can be made, but whether it can be delivered and legally connected. Ask us early — a route assessment costs nothing and occasionally saves a very expensive mistake.
What changes market by market — the structural code and its national annex, the energy standard, the climate the envelope has to survive and the items that move the budget — is set out country by country on luxury modular homes in Europe.
Country guides
The process below is the same wherever you build. What changes is the law, the paperwork and the route — and it changes more than most suppliers admit. These guides go into the detail for the markets international clients ask about most: what governs permission, which codes the structure is calculated to, the energy standard, the tax and insurance position, and how the modules actually arrive.
| Guide | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Luxury modular homes in Spain | Our home market, run end to end in house: the municipal building licence and the land classification that decides whether a plot can take a house at all, the Technical Building Code, the ten-year structural insurance a notary asks for at resale, and how close to the sea you can build. |
| Luxury modular homes in the United Kingdom | Planning permission and Building Regulations as two separate consents, the structural warranty and mortgage-lending evidence a modular house has to produce in Britain, Part L and Part O, and the Channel crossing. |
| Luxury modular homes in Ireland | Planning permission and the rural-housing policy that decides most Irish projects before the design begins, the BCAR certifier regime and the Commencement Notice, NZEB and the BER, Atlantic wind loading and radon, and why we ship direct to an Irish port rather than through Britain. |
| Luxury modular homes in Switzerland | The acquisition and second-home rules that decide whether the project is possible at all, cantonal and communal permission, the SIA norms and alpine snow loading, and customs at the Swiss border. |
| Luxury modular homes in Germany | The Bauantrag across sixteen state building codes, what §34 and §35 BauGB mean for your plot, the preliminary ruling that de-risks a purchase, GEG compliance and oversized transport. |
| Luxury modular homes in Austria | The provincial land-transfer and second-home rules that decide whether the plot is available to you at all, the Baubewilligung across nine provincial building codes, the OIB guidelines and the Energieausweis, alpine snow loading, and the one market in this list where nobody needs persuading that a factory-built house is a good house. |
| Luxury modular homes in France | The permis de construire and the PLU, why RE2020 rewards a factory-built house, the decennial liability insurance a builder must legally hold, the compulsory soil study, and convoi exceptionnel delivery. |
| Luxury modular homes in the Benelux | Three countries and, in Belgium, three regional permit systems: the Flemish omgevingsvergunning, the Walloon and Brussels permis d’urbanisme, the Dutch Omgevingswet with its Wkb quality assurance, and the Luxembourg autorisation de construire — plus the piled foundations and the crane access that decide a dense urban plot. |
| Luxury modular homes in Poland | Whether the plot sits inside a local spatial plan or needs a warunki zabudowy decision, the notification route that suits a large plot, the agricultural classification and purchase-permit traps that catch foreign buyers, WT 2021 in a −24 °C design winter, and residential construction taxed at 8%. |
| Luxury modular homes in Portugal | Our shortest international delivery — one road journey, no border and no sea leg, which is what allows wider modules — set against the hardest land due diligence in this list: the ecological, agricultural and coastal classifications that can make a beautiful plot legally unbuildable, plus the use permit a resale depends on. |
| Luxury modular homes in Italy | The permesso di costruire and the municipal plan, the landscape authorisation and the Soprintendenza that reshape more contemporary designs than any other authority in Europe, seismic design to NTC 2018 where low mass is a real advantage, and the cadastral category that decides whether VAT on your villa is charged at the reduced or the standard rate. |
| Luxury modular homes in Greece | Europe’s highest seismic demand, which is the strongest engineering argument in this cluster for a light factory-built structure; the four checks that decide whether an out-of-plan plot can take a house at all; the shoreline setback and Cycladic architectural rules; and island logistics where the ferry, the quay and the crane set the module size. |
| Luxury modular homes in Albania | Why title verification comes before the architecture in this market, the municipal general local plan and the coastal setbacks, why low mass makes a steel-frame house a strong seismic performer in one of Europe's most active zones, and the access, utilities and customs questions to settle before you buy. |
One of the markets we serve has no guide of its own here. Russia is a market we work with mainly the other way round — Russian buyers purchasing in Spain, which is covered in our Russian-language guide to buying property in Spain. For a plot anywhere else in Europe, including the rest of the Balkans and the Nordic countries, ask us directly: the feasibility assessment is the same one and it costs nothing.
How a cross-border project runs, step by step
1. Plot appraisal and feasibility
Before any design work, we look at what the plot will actually allow: local planning rules and buildable area, orientation, slope, ground conditions, access for a crane and for abnormal loads, and the availability of water, power and drainage. This is also where a route to the plot gets sketched out, because access constraints can reshape the module layout.
2. Architecture and engineering
The house is designed for that plot and for your brief — not selected from a range. In parallel, the structural design is calculated to the codes in force at the destination, and the house is divided into modules whose dimensions respect the transport limits of the actual route.
3. Planning permission
The application goes to the local authority in its own language, through the channels it expects, with the documentation it requires. Timescales are set by that authority, not by us, which is why the next step starts before this one finishes.
4. Factory production
Manufacturing runs in parallel with the permitting and the foundations, which is where most of the time saving in modular construction actually comes from. You receive scheduled reporting, and we recommend a factory visit before the modules are closed up.
5. Transport and delivery
The modules are moved to the plot by road, with a sea or ferry leg where the destination requires it, under the permits and escorts the route calls for.
6. Assembly and connections
Craning and assembly are a matter of days rather than months. The work that follows on site — sealing the joints, connecting the services, exterior works and commissioning — is what turns a set of modules into a finished house.
7. Handover
Snagging, documentation, certificates and the final walkthrough. You receive the house with its paperwork in order in the destination country, not a pile of tasks to complete yourself.
Transport: what actually drives the cost and the design
Transport is the part of an international modular project that clients most consistently underestimate, and it is decided during engineering rather than at the end. Four things govern it:
- Module width. This is the big one. As a rule, a load up to about 2.55 m wide travels the European road network as ordinary freight. Go wider and you enter the world of abnormal-load permits, escort vehicles, restricted hours and route-by-route approval — country by country, each with its own rules. Wider modules mean fewer joints and a better interior, so the trade-off is a real design decision, not a technicality.
- The route, not the distance. Kilometres matter less than what is on them: tunnels, bridge clearances, urban approaches, mountain passes, ferry schedules and border crossings.
- The last few hundred metres. A narrow lane, a tight turn, overhead cables or soft ground can cost more than the entire motorway leg, because they determine the crane you need and where it can stand.
- Customs, where they apply. Within the EU, none. For the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Albania or Russia, import documentation and clearance become part of the plan.
Permits and regulation, country by country
The single most common misconception we meet is that a modular home is somehow a lighter regulatory category — a temporary structure, a caravan with ambitions, something that slips past the planning process. It is not. A luxury modular home is a permanent dwelling and it is assessed as one: same planning rules, same structural codes, same energy and safety requirements as a site-built house on the same plot. What changes is where the work is inspected, not whether it is.
| Market | Route to approval |
|---|---|
| Spain | Municipal building licence with a stamped project, complying with the Technical Building Code (CTE) and the planning rules for the plot. |
| Germany, Austria | Building application under the building code of the relevant federal state, with structural verification to the Eurocodes and their national annex. |
| Netherlands, Belgium | Environment and planning permission, with the quality-assurance obligations that apply to new housing. |
| Poland | Building permit (pozwolenie na budowę) with a design prepared to the national technical conditions. |
| Switzerland | Cantonal and communal permission; requirements and timescales vary considerably between cantons. |
| United Kingdom | Planning permission plus Building Regulations approval, handled as two separate processes. |
| Ireland | Planning permission from the local authority under the county development plan, plus Building Regulations compliance certified under the Building Control Amendment Regulations by a registered Assigned Certifier. |
| Albania | Municipal building permit under the national territorial planning legislation, applied for electronically, with the design verified for the local seismic action. |
That table is a map, not legal advice: the authority with jurisdiction over your plot sets the actual procedure, the documents and the timescale, and those change. Structural steel components are supplied with the conformity documentation required for the European market, and the design is calculated for the snow, wind and seismic loading of the destination — which is one of several reasons a house designed for Andalusia cannot simply be shipped to Silesia.
VAT, taxes and who invoices what
Building a house is, for tax purposes, work on immovable property, and the general European rule is that such services are taxed where the land is — not where you live and not where the factory is. Practically, that means the VAT treatment of your project follows the destination country, and the rate depends on that country's rules for new housing. Spain, for instance, applies the reduced rate to new-build residential property, while other markets differ in both rate and treatment.
Where modules cross into a non-EU destination, import VAT and any duties come into play as part of the delivery. We set all of this out transparently in the project breakdown, and we ask every international client to have it confirmed by a tax adviser in the destination country before signing. Anyone who gives you a confident cross-border tax answer without knowing your plot, your residence status and your structure is guessing.
Timelines, honestly
A modular project is faster than an equivalent traditional build, and the reason is structural rather than promotional: manufacturing runs at the same time as the permitting and the foundations, instead of after them. The on-site phase is measured in weeks.
What we will not do is quote you a number on a web page. The honest answer is that the timeline is dominated by the two things we do not control — how long the local authority takes, and how long your plot takes to become buildable — and by one we do: the point at which the design is frozen. Every project proposal we issue carries its own programme, with those dependencies named.
Running the project from another country
The operational promise matters as much as the construction one. In practice it means:
- One point of contact, in English, for the whole project — not a different department for each phase.
- Local complexity absorbed. We deal with the authority, the trades and the paperwork in the local language. You deal with us.
- Scheduled reporting at milestones, with photographic evidence, plus a factory visit at the point where changes are still cheap.
- Payments tied to verifiable stages, so money follows completed, inspectable work.
- Someone on site when you are not. Assembly, connections and commissioning are supervised by our own team.
You can see the full scope of the service, the typologies and the standard specification on the turnkey luxury modular homes page, and the materials and finish levels in the catalogue and quality specifications.
Frequently asked questions
Can you build a modular home in a country where I do not live?
Yes. That is the normal case for us: the client is in one country and the plot is in another. The design, the engineering and the manufacturing are run by a single team, and everything you need to approve — drawings, specification, finishes, milestones — is presented in English and signed remotely.
Do I have to be on site during construction?
No. Most of the build happens in the factory, not on your plot, so there is very little that requires your physical presence. We schedule reporting at each milestone and arrange a factory visit before the modules are closed up, which is the point at which changes are still inexpensive.
Do planning authorities treat a luxury modular home differently?
No, and that is the important part: it is assessed as a permanent dwelling like any other. There is no modular shortcut and no lighter category. The design has to satisfy the same local planning rules, structural codes and energy requirements that a site-built house on that plot would.
How are the modules moved across borders?
By road for most of Europe, with a sea or ferry leg where the destination requires one. Module dimensions are set during engineering against the transport limits of the route, because width is what decides whether a load travels normally or needs abnormal-load permits and escorts.
Are there customs duties or import VAT?
Inside the EU single market the modules move as goods between member states with no customs clearance. For destinations outside it — the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Albania — import formalities apply and are handled as part of the logistics package. We always ask you to confirm the tax treatment with an adviser in the destination country.
Which countries do you build in?
Sixteen markets: Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Poland, Albania and Russia. Most have their own country guide, linked above.
Can the house be engineered for the destination's climate and codes?
Yes, and it has to be. Insulation thickness, airtightness, glazing specification, snow and wind loading and the heating strategy are all calculated for the actual location, not carried over from a standard model. A house for the Costa del Sol and the same house for Poland are not the same house.
Is everything handled in English?
Yes. Your point of contact, the drawings, the specification, the contract and the reporting are all in English, while we deal with the local authority, the local trades and the local paperwork in their own language on your behalf.
Can I get a mortgage on a modular home in another country?
Usually yes, but the answer is market-specific and it has to be planned before manufacturing starts. In Germany prefabrication has been mainstream for two generations and lenders and appraisers are entirely comfortable with it. In the United Kingdom, by contrast, lenders treat anything other than traditional masonry as non-standard construction and want a ten-year structural warranty plus system-level evidence of a design life of at least sixty years before they will lend. We settle the lending and warranty route for the destination market at feasibility stage, because it cannot be retrofitted afterwards.
What guarantees and insurance come with the house?
Those required by the law of the destination country, and they differ sharply. France imposes a ten-year decennial liability that the builder must be insured for, alongside your own dommages-ouvrage policy, and a French notary will ask for both certificates if you sell within ten years. The United Kingdom works through a ten-year structural warranty from a recognised provider. We set out the cover that applies to your project in the proposal rather than leaving you to discover it later.
Does a luxury modular home hold its value and resell normally?
Yes, provided the project was set up correctly. It is a permanent dwelling and it is valued like one — on location, design, size and specification. What damages resale is almost never the construction method but missing paperwork: no structural warranty in the United Kingdom, no decennial insurance certificate in France, an incomplete completion file anywhere. That documentation is part of what we deliver, not an afterthought.
How much does an international luxury modular home cost?
There is no closed catalogue with a fixed price. The budget is set on the project and broken down into architecture, manufacturing, transport, assembly, services and finishes, plus permits, foundations and utility connections — and, for a cross-border project, the logistics of the route to your plot. Every line of that breakdown, and the items clients most often leave out of their own budget, are set out in the complete guide to luxury modular homes.
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