Chinese builder in $3.4b agreement for UK homes

China National Building Materials Group Corp struck a 2.75-billion-pound joint venture deal on Monday to open six highly cost-efficient pre-fabricated house-building factories in the United Kingdom, capable of producing 25,000 homes a year. The new homes built by the joint venture will reduce construction costs to a target of 400 pounds per square meter, significantly less than the 1,000 pounds per sq m average in the UK market.