Reform the Home Guard, get your towels down on the sun loungers and, whatever you do, don’t mention the war. The Germans are coming. For a decade now, an invasion of high-tech, German prefabricated homes has been the housing equivalent of Billy Bunter’s postal order — much-heralded, but never actually arriving. However, by the end of the summer, three of Germany’s main construction players will have a presence here in Scotland.

Baufritz, a Bavarian eco-house specialist, has two Scottish sites undergoing planning consideration, and WeberHaus, a mainstream builder, has planted its flag in Inverness-shire. Earlier this month, industry professionals descended on Kincraig to observe WeberHaus’s construction of a 4,000-sq-ft show house.

Through Precision Engineered Homes (PEH), the Scottish agents, WeberHaus is planning a range, from £150,000 terrace starter homes to millionaire mansions. Ken Tod of PEH says Scotland’s mainstream homebuilders, represent the direct competition — and claims the Germans’ product is superior in their construction quality.

WeberHaus claims its off-site manufactured build system offers “unrivalled engineering quality, rapid build times and guaranteed fixed costs, combined with superb energy efficiency and outstanding environmental credentials”.

The company’s panels are delivered to site with windows, doors, electrical conduits and in-wall plumbing pre-installed and assembled to a wind-and-watertight state within two days. This contrasts with 12 weeks or more for a comparable conventional timber-frame house.

However, the most hotly anticipated unveiling is the first British development of the high-end firm Huf Haus. Nestling at the foot of the Pentland Hills, next to the picturesque conservation village of West Linton in the Borders, Rutherford Castle was historically the first staging post outside Edinburgh for coaches heading south. Now, in an age of trains, planes and automobiles, this site will play host to Huf’s debut.

Huf’s signature look is light, open-plan and minimalist. According to a survey, the company’s blend of Bauhaus philosophy and post-and-beam technology is Britain’s third most desirable home style — behind Victorian and Georgian but ahead of art deco and the thatched cottage.

However, with a build cost of £130-£160 per square foot — or about £300,000 for a three-bed house, excluding land, generally only the very wealthy have been able to order Huf homes.

So far, Huf’s adventures in Scotland have consisted of less than a handful of isolated, rural commissions for well-heeled, private individuals, where the statement homes have been set against striking natural backdrops, or in contrast to traditional dwellings. At Rutherford Gardens, though, Huf is trying something new — its first Scottish development.

Rutherford Gardens is the brainchild of Angus Macfarlane, managing director of Macfarlane Homes, the Scottish family-owned builder, and represents Huf’s first co-production in Scotland.

An original cottage has already been sold, and Macfarlane is offering the original stable block augmented by a bespoke pavilion extension, at offers over £695,000. The now similarly hybrid Rutherford House is for sale at offers over £750,000. Both properties are being used to market two — as yet unbuilt — free-standing Huf houses, that can be created in consultation with the buyers, at offers over £1.2m each.

Macfarlane says: “We are offering something akin to the Huf self-build experience without the hassle and heartache of doing it yourself.”

The German firms have been joined over here by Dan-Wood, an Edinburgh-based Polish firm, which claims to be able to provide a cut-price Huf without the puff. It offers a “turn-key” terrace home for under £70,000, which is ideal for first-time buyers struggling to get on to the property ladder.

Macfarlane believes Huf buyers are a completely different breed from average. They want contemporary ease of living, low maintenance and the last word in build technology, rather than the safety in numbers of a hard-to-maintain period piece.

He says: “A Huf Haus is a lifestyle proposition. It is a badge of pride for people to own one. A lot of people aspire to living in a Huf and for them, every penny spent living their dream is a penny well spent.”

Macfarlane Homes, 0131 660 2200, www.macfarlanehomes.com ;

Precision Engineered Homes, 01463 227 496, www.pehomes.co.uk ;

Baufritz, 01223 235 632, www.baufritz.co.uk ;

Dan-Wood, 0131 555 1771, www.dan-wood.co.uk

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