Modular homes are being considered by more than 60 councils in South Australia as regional communities seek faster ways to accommodate nurses, teachers and police officers amid construction delays and labour shortages.
A $3.35 million trial led by Renewal SA’s Office for Regional Housing is intended to help develop an industry that is gaining popularity internationally. Two- and three-bedroom homes built in an Adelaide factory are being prepared for councils across the Yorke Peninsula and the Flinders Ranges.
For the mid-north town of Quorn, where building projects can face delays of years, transporting a prefabricated home along the Augusta Highway could reduce both waiting times and costs.
Flinders Ranges Mayor Ken Anderson said the homes could provide emergency, short-term or long-term accommodation for communities struggling to secure traditional construction.
“Their timeline for construction and delivery is relatively short and their easy ability to provide that accommodation, whether it be emergency, short term or long term, is very important for us,” he told AAP.
Modular homes offer regional construction alternative
Acting South Australian Housing Minister Michael Brown said modular construction could help the government meet its target of delivering 13,500 homes each year, including in regional areas.
Master Builders SA chief executive Will Frogley said traditional housing would not be replaced, but the level of interest in modular homes was unsurprising given the shortage of construction workers.
The Master Builders Workforce Blueprint identified 141,000 vacancies in the building construction industry nationally, including 4,000 in South Australia. Building costs have also risen sharply, with some items such as tiling increasing by 30 per cent over the past five years, according to Cotality’s Cordell Construction Cost Index.
“We’ve been the canary down the coal mine in terms of the inflation challengers that are affecting the whole country,” Mr Frogley told AAP.
The pressure on construction has coincided with wider efforts to increase housing supply. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas have backed a plan to divest 12.81 hectares of land outside Adelaide for housing and community facilities.
Mr Albanese said inflationary pressures were a global phenomenon, pointing to interest rate increases in the United States and other advanced economies.
The Reserve Bank of Australia’s cash rate has risen to 4.6 per cent, taking the average owner-occupier variable mortgage rate to 6.49 per cent, according to financial comparison site Canstar.
Master Builders Australia chief executive Denita Wawn said the latest rate rise, combined with logistical costs across the industry, was undermining the financial viability of many proposed building projects.
“Australia is sleepwalking into a severe building and construction downturn at precisely the time we need to be building more,” she said.
