The Minns Labor Government is continuing to pull every available lever to address the housing affordability and availability crisis facing New South Wales, with the first sites to trial modular social housing announced today.
As the Government continues to look at innovative ways to bring more homes online sooner, $10 million has been invested to explore and trial the use of modular housing to deliver much needed social homes for the people of NSW.
Following a comprehensive assessment, sites in Wollongong and Lake Macquarie have been identified as suitable locations to deliver the first modular social homes.
Three sites in Wollongong will host three modular social homes, whilst four sites in Lake Macquarie will host five modular social homes.
A procurement process for the delivery of these homes has begun, with completion expected by early 2025.
Modular housing provides a cost effective and time efficient alternative to traditional building methods, which means homes can be brought online faster. It is estimated that modular homes can be delivered 20% faster than traditional methods, with time savings expected to increase over time.
Last year, the NSW Government formed the Modular Housing Taskforce, an expert cross industry panel who have spearheaded this project and provided advice to the government on barriers to the utilisation of and ways modular housing can be harnessed to speed up the delivery of homes.
The Taskforce includes peak industry experts such as; PreFab Aus, Shelter NSW, Property Council of Australia, Local Government NSW and people with lived experiences of social housing.
As modular housing has not previously been used at scale in NSW, feedback from the Taskforce highlighted several regulatory barriers to the rollout of modular housing widely, which the NSW Government is methodically working through.
This work includes collaborating with the NSW Building Commission to set uniform standards for manufactured homes constructed offsite.
The NSW Government will continue to work with the Taskforce, and local governments as it looks to expand the Modular Housing Program across the state and bring more social homes online sooner.
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Premier of New South Wales, Chris Minns said:
“Housing affordability and availability is the single biggest pressure facing the people of New South Wales.
“We are pulling every lever we can to tackle the housing crisis, and today is an important milestone in our work to utilise nontraditional methods of delivering more homes, sooner rather than later.”
Minister for Housing and Homelessness Rose Jackson said:
“Today marks another significant milestone in our Modular Housing Taskforce Plan as we announce the locations for the first set of modular social homes.
“These initial sites are a crucial first step towards revolutionising public housing delivery and we anticipate this demonstration project will pave the way for more of these innovative homes to be rolled out in the future.
“Amid a severe housing crisis, we need to look at every option we must get a roof over people’s heads sooner. Leveraging modern construction methods will help us provide sustainable, quality housing faster for the people that need it most.
“We know people don’t have time to wait and while we get on with the job of building 8,400 new public homes announced in the recent budget, we will continue to leverage every opportunity we have.”
Member for Wollongong Paul Scully said:
“Modular and modern methods of construction are used to produce award-winning architecturally designed homes in a timely and efficient manner, so it makes sense to trial this approach to construction as part of the Minns Government’s commitment to build more social housing.
“I welcome not only the use of new and innovative methods of construction that are used the world over to trial them to build more social housing in Wollongong – it is a sensible use of new technology to try and solve a long-term housing waiting list.”
