Local modular home manufacturer Uniplan is ready to work with governments and partners on addressing the housing crisis, but says we need less talk and more action.
Yesterday the NSW Government announced sites for a $10m investment to “explore and trial the use of modular housing to deliver much needed social homes for the people of NSW”.
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. There is a wide variety of designs and options in the modern modular housing, ranging from cabins and worker accommodation through to sizable four bedroom homes, making it a viable option to address shortages across the spectrum of housing styles required.
“Housing affordability and availability is the single biggest pressure facing the people of New South Wales,” Premier Chris Minns said.
“We are pulling every lever we can to tackle the housing crisis, and today is an important milestone in our work to utilise non-traditional methods of delivering more homes, sooner rather than later.”
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.
Armidale’s Uniplan, part of the Scott Group of companies that employs more than 200 people and is a cornerstone of the rapidly expanding local manufacturing sector, was part of the Taskforce. Founder and Managing Director of the Scott Group, Ben Scott, says they could be doing more and faster.
“We have been part of the Taskforce that the NSW Government has set up looking in to this for close on 12 months.
“It’s absolutely a good idea. Probably the biggest challenge is, as all governments do, they’ve put out a bunch of press releases and other information over the last 12 months but the actual actions have been pretty slow coming.”
The trial that has been announced will be limited to a small number of homes in Lake Macquarie and Wollongong, with Minister for Housing and Homelessness Rose Jackson saying these initial sites are a just a first step towards revolutionising public housing delivery.
“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.,” she said.
“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.”
Mr Scott says modular housing can work to resolve the shortage of housing for the New England too.
“The intention is to roll it out across the state as a mechanism that they can use to speed up the delivery of housing.”
“And there’s obviously no limitation on on modular building being used in any form of construction, anywhere at this point in time.”
As modular housing has not previously been used at scale for social housing 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.
Mr Scott says the housing crisis did not “just start in the last five minutes”, but it’s time to take action.
“There’s a housing crisis on that needs fixing, and what we need is action, not debate and red tape.”
Uniplan’s 7000m2 state of the art factory in Seaton Street is capable of building and furnishing a home every day.
“We want to see houses built, and there is folk like ourselves, which are in the modular building game, and other industries that are ready for the challenge.”
“Government needs to pick up their game and make it happen.”
The NSW Government says it 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.
Top image: Two of Uniplan’s modular home designs, Exmouth three bedroom home (L) and Wattle four bedroom home (R) (Uniplan)
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