[+] Builder on Cusp of Smashing Home Construction Times

One of Australia’s oldest home builders could be about to crack the 10-week house-build benchmark, ushering in a new era in residential construction. AV Jennings has spent a good part of this century searching for technology to take it through the next 100 years of residential development. It says it has found it in a prefabrication system devised in Australia. And although now these homes are built in Bosnia in south-eastern Europe and sent here in shipping containers, AV Jennings will soon be able to create more than 2000 homes a year in Australia. The ASX-listed company has signed a joint-venture deal with prefabricator Pro9 and plans to build prefab homes indistinguishable from current detached home stock. As Australia struggles to meet the housing needs of its growing population, AV Jennings chief executive Phil Kearns told The Urban Developer they had taken a huge step forward with onshore production to start next year. “It is Western Australian technology but it’s being produced in Bosnia because the guy who invented it is Bosnian,” Kearns says. “It’s being shipped to Australia from there, however, we have entered a joint venture with the company, Pro9, to establish a manufacturing plant on the Central Coast of NSW. “We plan to begin manufacturing there during the first quarter of next year, so somewhere between January and March.” Unlike typical modular housing, Pro9 allows builders to have the exact design they want. As well, Pro9’s wall system is multi-storey load bearing without the need for columns or beams, allowing multi-storey builds. The walls consist of three components—a steel frame for strength, external proprietary ProBoard for fire resistance and finish, and polyurethane for insulation. And they have a best-in-class standard of insulation and air tightness, as well as being delivered with electrical wiring and windows already installed. So far 10 of these homes have been built in Australia as the company streamlines the process that could mean homes will be built in as little as nine weeks. ▲ Ten AV Jennings homes have been built using the Pro9 technology to date. “AV Jennings’ impact on the technology is that we are making it more buildable,” Kearns says. “We’re not there yet but we are aiming to have it somewhere between two and three months as we get better and more efficient with putting together these structures. “The whole wall fits into a shipping container—the windows are already in, the electricals are in, it goes into a container and on to the site where a crane lowers it on to the slab.” The homes can be built to a number of AV Jennings designs that are part of the Stellar Collection. Two of these homes built at Riverton, Queensland, achieved a 9.4 NatHERS rating. The proportion of Pro9 homes in AV Jennnings’ portfolio is expected to scale up quickly with a pipeline planned for the 2024 financial year. The company has 14,094 lots under its control as part of its “strategic restocking” in south-east Queensland and NSW. Kearns says the technology not only saves considerable time getting to lock-up stage but produces high-quality homes with strong sustainability outcomes. ▲ AV Jennings chief executive Phil Kearns: Huge step forward. “AV Jennings has been looking at prefabricating homes for probably 15 years,” he says. “We’ve tried a few things but nothing we’ve really liked or hit the quality we were looking for. “About four or five years ago we came across Pro9 and we liked what they were doing. “We’re very excited about it—when its up and running the factory will be able to do about 1000 homes a year or, in two shifts, 2000 homes a year. “And we are certainly interested in talking with other builders who want to embrace the technology.” However, AV Jennings is not the only developer looking to technology to improve build costs, completion times and quality. Printing homes is also gaining traction—NSW-based company Contour3D plans to print an entire tourist park at Dubbo, constructing the buildings in days. Before construction blowouts during and after the pandemic, the average time it took to build a home was just over six months. ▲ Two of the homes at Riverton, Queensland, achieved a 9.4 NatHERS rating. Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows this completion time remained relatively unchanged from 2009 to 2019. Queensland was the fastest place to build a home at just over five months compared to about seven months in NSW and Victoria. This was pushed out to 12 months or more during the pandemic. “It’s really been tough for the whole industry—it’s been difficult but I think we can see light at the end of the tunnel,” Kearns says. “It’s been an incredibly tough couple of years for the whole industry and we’re not immune to that. “We’re in pretty reasonable shape. The war in the Ukraine began and led to a whole bunch of supply-chain issues, which meant price increases for products. “Through Covid we lost a lot of labour out of the country—tradesmen went home, which caused prices to increase and the time to build was extended massively. ▲ In terms of the type of construction there hasn’t been really groundbreaking methodology, says AV Jennings chief Phil Kearns. “Then we had seven months of rain and that caused futher issues. A big part of what we do requires big bits of yellow machinery digging and moving earth. “Then we had 12 interest rate rises in 13 months. “Hopefully people in the industry are generally a little more optimistic about where we can head from here.” Methodology innovation stuck A tech shake-up could be exactly the thing to reactivate innovation in the dormant construction industry. “In terms of the type of construction there hasn’t been really groundbreaking methodology,” Kearns says. “There’s been individual innovations in terms of different products and solutions for things such as stone in houses and technology around solar roofs. “But homes are still pretty much built the same way they were built for the past 40 or 50 years.” Solutions to the Australian housing crisis are many and varied—and the rise of new technology to help delivers homes faster is certain to play an increasing role in the not-too-distant future. 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[+] Builder on Cusp of Smashing Home Construction Times

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