Russian billionaire Sergey Gordeev, whose PIK Group PJSC surged nearly 140% this year to become Europe’s most valuable homebuilder, thinks his industry is due for a disruption or risks going the way of gas-guzzling cars and brick-and-mortar stores.

Gordeev has ambitions to transform his company, now worth about $13 billion, into a global leader in modular housing that can build towering apartment blocks in weeks and establish a platform that makes buying and renting apartments more like shopping for groceries online.  

“There’s going to be the same disruptive revolution in construction” that changed e-commerce, electric cars and banking, Gordeev said in an interview. “Within three years I think our other companies will pass our development business as the main revenue drivers.”

The pivot comes after Russian housing prices boomed during the coronavirus epidemic, swept up in a global trend for improved living spaces when the pandemic kept people stuck at home. 

Gordeev, PIK’s controlling shareholder and chief executive officer, has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the tight market. His net worth more than doubled this year to $8.6 billion as shares climbed, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. 

PIK may offer shares in a secondary public offering this week, Kommersant reported Monday, citing people it didn’t identify. The money may be used to finance its modular construction unit, the paper said. A spokesperson for PIK didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

PIK’s new division, Units, uses modules assembled in a factory to reduce time and labor costs. Its first modular project, a nine-story, 136-apartment building in Moscow, is scheduled for assembly over two weeks in October using about 30 workers, according to PIK. 

“In 10 to 15 years, the industry will look completely different,” Gordeev said. “It will all be modules.”

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