Looking to speed up adoption, Apple is partnering with various U.S. home builders to get HomeKit-ready technology installed in some homes from the start, a report said on Wednesday.

"We want to bring home automation to the mainstream," Apple's VP of product marketing, Greg Joswiak, explained to Bloomberg. "The best place to start is at the beginning, when a house is just being created."

Some partners include Lennar, KB Home, and Brookfield, but the companies haven't said when their enhanced homes will go on sale.

The principle however is that it can be easier to sell automation technologies when they're built into a house, especially since it doesn't involve retrofitting anything, and the cost of the hardware can be baked into a mortgage. A KB spokesman noted that the company's basic wireless package is $2,000, which translates into just a few pennies extra in monthly payments.

One of the main obstacles to HomeKit adoption is believed to be the upfront cost. A HomeKit-compatible Schlage deadbolt is about $200, several times the price of a conventional one. Even smartbulbs can be substantially more expensive than their ordinary counterparts.