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Business Daily

Business Daily

How modular homes are rebuilding Portugal’s ruins

26 February 2026

17 minutes

Available for over a year

Today, we’re looking at a wooden house revolution that's happening in Europe. Concrete’s carbon footprint is turning architects and construction companies towards trees.

In Portugal, a rush of new residents to the sparsely populated rural areas – and a lack of builders – is driving the flat-pack and modular wooden house market. Many of these rural plots often have a ruined, abandoned house on them, creating opportunities for faster construction.

We also meet an architect who has dedicated his life to building in wood, championing a material he believes is key to more sustainable design.

If you’d like to get in touch with the team, our email address is businessdaily@bbc.co.uk

Presented and produced by Alastair Leithead

Business Daily is the home of in-depth audio journalism devoted to the world of money and work. From small startup stories to big corporate takeovers, global economic shifts to trends in technology, we look at the key figures, ideas and events shaping business.

Each episode is a 17-minute deep dive into a single topic, featuring expert analysis and the people at the heart of the story.

Recent episodes explore the weight-loss drug revolution, the growth in AI, the cost of living, why bond markets are so powerful, China's property bubble, and Gen Z's experience of the current job market.

We also feature in-depth interviews with company founders and some of the world's most prominent CEOs. These include Google's Sundar Pichai, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, CEO of Canva Melanie Perkins, and the CEO of Starbucks, Brian Niccol.

(Picture: Wooden modular house. Credit: Getty Images)