The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has announced that the city will be investing £25 million into constructing over 1,000 affordable prefab apartments. Funding from the city will go into purchasing small brownfield sites that will then be built on by Pocket Living, a developer specializing in 400-square-foot modular apartments. The apartments will go to first-time home buyers, already living in the relevant borough, and will be sold roughly 20% below market rate. The initiative also ensures that the Pocket homes remain affordable for the lifetime of the building. The new homes are expected for completion by 2021.

Upon making the announcement, the Mayor acknowledged his commitment to helping solve London's housing crisis: "The housing crisis is the biggest challenge facing Londoners today and I have been honest from the start that we won’t be able to turn things round overnight. For decades, we have simply not built enough new and affordable homes in the capital, meaning that for too many Londoners the dream of buying their own home is getting further and further out of reach. That is why I am working with Pocket Living to build more than a thousand homes for first-time buyers, using the latest off-site construction techniques to provide attractive and affordable homes as quickly as possible. I will continue to use more of my £3.15bn of funding to invest in innovative schemes like this to build the genuinely affordable homes Londoners need.”