Housing for export

Possible - Yes, but you might have a bunch of hoops to jump through such as fumigating the wood before It's allowed to enter the US.
That's something to check with your customs department.
Is it worth it when you could just get a set of plans drawn up and get it made in the US?

Hi Arti1,

My wife and some of her university friends from Jakarta rented a wooden house in Lembang, Bandung. The house was newly built in Sumatra and cost Rp150 million. The owner of this house placed the order with a house builder in Palembang, Sumatra and once it was finished it was code marked, dismantled and transported over to Bandung in Java. Two of the staff from the factory supervised the reconstruction in Java. I don't know the name of the factory but just wanted to share the information. I did take a look inside and it was quite spacious, with several rooms upstairs and built using thick wood.



As far as fumigation is concerned, it is a very simple process. Every Cargo company in Indonesia fumigates containers as a standard procedure. The charge is usually between US$30 - $50 for a 40 ft container and they issue you with a Fumigation Certificate along with all the other export documentation such as Certificate of Origin, Export Certificate and Bill of Lading.

As for importing the house into your own country, that is something that you'd need to check with a Freight Forwarder at your end, who will check with Customs about any possible restrictions or special licenses that might be required.

If you do proceed with this project, I would strongly recommend choosing a reputable Cargo company rather than try to cut costs with cheaper cargo companies, to ensure the container is loaded properly and efficiently. Cheaper Cargo companies often load containers badly by almost throwing in the goods in any old manner. It saves them much time but might cause you headaches when you receive the container as well as costing you more as bad loading means more volume and therefore more cost.

Regards,
Hansson

Thanks Fred, yes doing it in NY is the easiest option but thought it might be more interesting to do a house in Bali but don't know how feasible it would be. Looking into it.