Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) will begin writing mortgages for homes built with technology from Icon, the leading 3D residential construction company.
Icon has previously worked with the lender’s philanthropic arm, the Wells Fargo Foundation, for the financing of 3D printed communities for people without housing. Under the new partnership that was first reported by CNBC, Wells Fargo will provide financing to builders who buy Icon’s 3D construction and a 50-basis point lender credit to buyers of Icon-constructed homes.
Wells Fargo’s support could provide a boost for the 3D printed home market, which has traditionally struggled to obtain mortgage financing due to lender concerns over the financial viability of these properties. Icon recently completed a 3D printed home market for the homebuilder Lennar Corp. (NYSE: LEN) in Texas, but Lennar’s mortgage division financed that project.
“We think the technology that Icon has built has the potential to lower construction costs and to speed up homebuilding at a time when we are seeing broader challenges in housing affordability and access to homeownership,” said Serhat Oztop, CEO of home lending at Wells Fargo. “Through this partnership Wells Fargo is bridging the gap between this new technology and access to homeownership. We don’t have any reason to believe that the long-term value for these homes will be any different from homes that are built based on traditional construction technologies.”
Jason Ballard, founder and CEO of Icon, observed, “Even though our testing and our results are all in the books, having one of the big banking players make such a strong and pointed announcement that, ‘We like these houses, we’re excited about these houses, in fact, we’re going to give preferential treatment to these houses,’ helps people believe and understand that this technology, and the houses it produces are ready for primetime.”
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