Government backs modular to help solve the housing crisis | The Business | ABC NEWS
The building industry and productivity commission agree modular is a cost-efficient and innovative way to tackle Australia’s housing supply challenge, and now the federal government is on board too.
The National Reconstruction Fund has invested $120 million into a project designed to show how modular construction – through advanced manufacturing techniques – can deliver affordable prefabricated apartment housing at scale.
The funding will help Built Living – a joint venture between property group Built and Wesfarmers – to start building a pilot factory in Perth later this year.
Built Living chief executive, Dale Connor says the factory will have the capability to produce 750,000 square metres of precast concrete, the equivalent of 2,000 apartments per year, which he claims will deliver prefab houses and apartments 50 per cent faster and 20 per cent cheaper.
With modular construction already popular in Scandinavia and Europe, Mr Connor says there’s effectively already a blueprint to follow in offsite manufacturing for the housing market. However, it does require a large capital commitment.
“Our factory, the first one here in WA, is over $250 million worth of investment…Built and Wesfarmers coming together certainly has the wherewithal to be able to make this happen.
But by bringing the West Australian Government into the first factory here, bringing the National Reconstruction Fund in as a lender into the factory, that provides us with support, with confidence to be able to say to the market that this is the backing that we have for our solution.”
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