A new internet service will allow house-hunters to order their fully-furnished dream home on the web - and have it delivered on the back of a lorry.

Swedish furniture store Ikea is to launch the timber prefabricated BoKlok UK homes in Brighton and Hove by next spring.

The BoKloks - Swedish for "live smart" - will be assembled and delivered to a designated site where they will share a communal garden complete with a Swedish apple tree.

Ikea is keeping the planned location of its BoKlok village top secret but it is understood Brighton and Hove will be one of four English cities to take a total of 500 of the homes by next spring.

In principle, the apartments resemble the self-assembly wardrobes and tables for which the Swedish firm is famous - although they must be put together by experts.

An open-plan, one-bedroom BoKlok could cost as little as £70,000 and they are aimed at first-time buyers desperate to get on the property ladder.

Ikea says people with incomes as low as £15,000 will be able to buy one.

BoKlok UK, a joint venture between Paramount Homes and the Hyde Group working with Ikea, has signed a £25 million deal with Optima Homes to roll the brand out across Britain.

The units have been thoroughly tested in Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden, where 2,000 BoKloks occupy 45 sites.

With house prices in the UK at an all-time high and with fewer people able to step on to the property ladder, the decision to bring the cabins to Sussex is evidence of the appetite for affordable, well-designed homes.

Although prefabricated houses have been available in Britain for years, this is the first time they have been mass-marketed.

Each BoKlok comes with a choice of interior furnishings.

They will be arranged in L-shaped blocks of six apartments, with between three and seven blocks on each site.

They will be open-plan, with inner courtyards, a communal garden, bench seating, full landscaping and private balconies or screened patios.

The homes were invented in 1997 in response to similar housing problems in Sweden, where Ikea shaved the basic cost of a home in the way it has done for humbler objects like the Jerker cupboard and Gassbo stool.

Costly but "unnecessary" house details were cut out after an exhaustive survey of what young house-hunters considered essential.

Alison Withrington, spokeswoman for BoKlok UK, said: "The reason we have chosen Brighton as one of the pilot areas is because the housing group which we work with is already familiar with the area as they have a chain there.

"We therefore have a good knowledge of the area in terms of land acquisition and the planning process and a good relationship with the local authorities.

"We have already identified a site in Brighton that we would like to use. We are just waiting for confirmation."