From 24% to 30% – Prefab Is Growing in Europe, Just Not Fast Enough

Prefab has been the next big thing in construction for over a decade now. Look back to the early 2010s, you’d find it up there with other structural shifts – like digitalization and sustainability – being pitched as a universal fix. On paper, the logic was sound and optimistic; move work off-site, standardize production, get more done with fewer people and that’s that.

Except things haven’t exactly played out that way. Adoption has moved, yes, but at a slow pace. Slower than expected, and nowhere near fast enough to keep up with the pressure the industry is under.

So for right now, let’s look at the numbers in our European Home Improvement Monitor and see how prefab’s landing in the market.

Prefab Adoption Is Growing But Barely

Let’s start with the stats. With architects, prefab usage has gone from 24% in 2018 to 30% in 2025, with expectations calling 39% by 2030. Undisputable growth… but stretched out over more than ten years, it’s less aggressive than projected. Taking the small win, we can confidently call it measured. 

Contractors are a tad less convincing. Prefab usage sat at 32% in 2018, then dropped to 24% in 2024 and has only recovered to 27% in 2025. The expectation for 2030 is 35%.

So yes, it’s trending upward. But the clear gap between expectation and execution tells us it’s neither a straight line nor is it moving with the promised acceleration. For something branded as a game-changing shift, we’re seeing a gradual crawl.

What’s Being Built Off-Site?

Prefab isn’t just one thing, so where growth is happening matters just as much as how much of it there is. And as things stand now, most of it isn’t doing that much to rethink construction. 

In 2025, about 51% of prefab usage was still basic, unfinished elements – the kind of components that don’t fundamentally change how projects are delivered. So, useful, but not game-changing. They make parts of the job easier, not the whole process better.

Panelized systems used to carry more weight and are now losing ground, dropping from 39% to 35%. 

Modular – the thing everyone talks about when they sell prefab as a solution – is growing, but slowly, moving from 11% in 2019 to 15% in 2025. Again, not really a breakthrough. 

So prefab in general is expanding, however it’s still leaning heavily toward lower-impact application. More industrialized, system-level approaches (think platform-based building systems or fully integrated off-site production) are gaining ground, but not fast enough to shift the overall model.

Prefab Is Still Stuck in Low-Rise

Prefab is heavily concentrated where things are “easiest.” 

Look at low-rise construction. In 2025, 72% of prefab applications are in buildings up to four floors. With fewer variables, fewer complications and a more forgiving standardization process, that’s the safe zone. 

But prefab can only shift the industry if it tackles more complexity. Low-rise is fine, but it doesn’t solve the bigger problem. Scaling into mid- and high-rise is where it’s at. And by 2030, that share is expected to drop to 49%, mid-rise will grow from 16% to 25% and high-rise from 4% to 12%. That’s where we’ll see meaningful movement. 

The intent is there. The expectation is most definitely there. But again, it’ll be more of a gradual climb than a spurt.

Why Aren’t Things Moving Faster?

No one would blame you asking why prefab isn’t it scaling faster if it makes so much sense. The answer is both straightforward and complex: because the industry isn’t built for it. There isn’t one barrier. There are several, feeding into each other.

1. Complexity Wins

In a nutshell, prefab stands for industrialized repeatability. And construction rarely operates in repetition. Custom designs, complex forms and one-off builds are still the norm for a lot of projects, and their specifics don’t really translate as cleanly into standardized production. 

2. Renovation Is the Wrong Kind of Growth

Renovation is currently doing most of the heavy lifting in the market. The problem is, it doesn’t play nicely with prefab. If you think about it, every building is different, every constraint unique. You’re working with existing structures, not clean slates and that limits how much work can be shifted off-site. It basically keeps things more manual and more dependent on labor.

3. Regulation

Construction is one of the most regulated industries in Europe, for good reason. But regulation and innovation aren’t always matched in pace. Different countries mean different rules that translate to different approval processes. That makes standardization harder than it need be. Instead of scaling one system across multiple regions, companies often have to adapt, redesign or re-certify, which in turn costs time and kills momentum.

4. Productivity Gains

Prefab promises efficiency, but delivers at scale – and that’s a delicate ask. Much of prefab is halfway there, operating with progress, but not full industrialization, meaning:

• limited standardization
• inconsistent workflows
• smaller efficiency gains 

So the productivity gains aren’t strong enough to force adoption. And without that push, things move slowly.

Why Prefab Hasn’t Reached Full Industrialization?

Manufacturing didn’t transform because of individual innovations. It transformed when those innovations lined up processes, production and scale. We now call that synchronization the assembly line.

Construction isn’t there yet. Prefab is often treated as a component-level solution (better walls, better modules, better elements), but what’s really missing is a fully optimized process with:

• repeatable designs
• integrated supply chains
• standardized production
• predictable assembly

Until those pieces click and come to, prefab will keep growing without taking over.

The Big Picture

This isn’t a provisional discussion; it ties directly into the industry’s hot topics: the industry is short on labor, projects are getting more complex and timelines are under pressure. Prefab could relieve some of that pressure by:

• reducing on-site labor demand
• improving speed of delivery
• stabilizing quality

But if it doesn’t scale, those benefits stay limited… and the pressure doesn’t go away. 

Prefab Outlook to 2030

The direction is clear, even if the pace isn’t: prefab will continue to grow. Architects expect prefab to hit 39% by 2030, contractors see 35%.

The mix will shift to more modular, more mid- and high-rise and less reliance on basic elements. But that alone won’t change much. For prefab to come to fruition, it needs to stop being optional. So the direction we’ll want to look into is designing for prefab from the start, aligning regulation with industrialized processes and investing in scale, not just capability.

Final Word

Plain and simple, prefab isn’t moving fast enough to outrun the problems it’s supposed to solve. Adoption is up, expectations are higher and the case for it is stronger than ever.

But right now, it’s still playing catch-up, because real transformation comes from building a system where there’s a new default for the way projects get delivered. And Europe isn’t there yet. Most likely, things stay as is… a good idea, growing steadily, without flipping the script.