Source : the age
The Minns government will establish an east coast housing manufacturing hub, using pre-fabrication methods to turbocharge construction and help to fundamentally change the way homes are built in NSW.
The government will announce today a key budget measure, to establish a partnership with a private manufacturer of prefab or modular housing.
A major focus would be medium-density housing, built using so-called Pattern Book designs, to deliver more homes via faster, more consistent processes.
A prefab manufacturing hub could also be used to provide a range of public infrastructure, including schools and hospitals.
Governments around Australia have taken a closer interest in expanding the use of prefab or modular housing as high costs, labour shortages and construction delays hamper the ambitious national housing accord targets.
Federal Housing Minister Clare O’Neil last month announced a $40 million prefabrication trial.
Conventional houses can take more than a year from approval to completion, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data, but modular experts say they can build more homes affordably and with fewer disruptions.
Despite ambitious planning reforms, the NSW government has struggled to boost housing supply, due in part to feasibility challenges hampering development.
It is arguably in better shape than any other jurisdiction to take advantage of prefabricated homes because its decision last year to roll out its architect-designed Pattern Book homes.
The designs, cheaper than those used for standard new builds, are for low and mid-rise developments such as semis, terrace housing and four- to six-storey apartment buildings.
Home owners and developers using them can benefit from fast-tracked approval.
Treasurer Daniel Mookhey said that developing the patterns had been a prerequisite for investment in the prefabrication hub. He said the government recognised it needed to get creative to solve the problem, and was bullish about the prospects of prefab in NSW.
“The moment you have those standardised designs is the moment you just start thinking about how to build a modular and advanced manufacturing industry,” he said.
The government wanted more manufacturing in NSW, whether buses, trains or homes.
″These aren’t chip boxes, these are great places to live,″ he said. ″We want to see what more we can do to help anchor an east coast market for this, and how we can help the private sector coming after us to be able to also deploy these designs.″
In coming weeks, the government will open a two-stage tender process seeking experienced local and international prefab operators as partners in developing and building factories.
“We are excited about the prospects that modular housing presents as a form of, fundamentally, productivity in the construction industry,” Mookhey said.
″The fact that you assemble a property indoors means you’re not exposed to weather risks, for example, which means you can turn it out a lot faster.″
Prefab and modular technology is widely used in countries such as Sweden, but in NSW is largely used for smaller single-dwelling homes.
Experts have long argued in favour of greater integration into the existing planning system, which the government says it will do by enabling approvals for more modern methods of construction.
There is a budget allocation of $32.3 million over four years to modernise building approvals, integrating the process into the NSW Planning Portal and using AI tools to speed up licence application processing.
An additional $1.6 million will be spent establishing a new regulatory framework and introducing a national certification system.
Premier Chris Minns said housing was ″one of the biggest challenges facing our state, and we are pulling every lever to build more homes, faster … The way we build homes has barely changed for generations, but the housing pressures facing NSW demand new thinking, new technology and new solutions.″
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