If you’ve wandered around Hawaii lately then you may have stumbled across these building structures. Here, they typically involve lifting an entire house about ten feet in the air by steel beams and pallets. This relatively new trend has been spotted lately, and the reason is actually quite smart. Firstly, it’s not some kind of anti-flood defense. Instead, it’s done to add value to the property. It’s no secret that Hawaii real estate is expensive and has ballooned in recent times.

The image below was uploaded to Reddit, where the curious photographer asked about why this had happened. In fairness, if you’re without context then seeing houses like this may be confusing.

So, savvy homeowners are literally elevating their houses and building under them. While this may be an unorthodox method, it can be achieved by lifting the wooden frame in the air and building beneath. This method may not be doable on concrete homes but on wooden ones, it has been done a lot. Once lifted, the builders will then add pillars and start adding a new floor, converting single-floor homes into double-floor homes.

This may be fairly expensive but it’s still a lot cheaper than the alternative. As the saying goes, it’s always cheaper to build upward rather than outward. Just don’t mention it to the Hawaii building codes committee.