A partnership between the Queensland government and prefabricated house builders aims to rollout more than 100 modular homes before the end of the year.
In the first deal of its kind in the state, the government has contracted Gold Coast-based builder Volo Modular to deliver 18 factory-built social homes. Eleven will be built in Gympie and another seven will go to Eidsvold.
The government says the partnerships will help deliver more homes, more quickly. Modular home builds take about a quarter of the time of a traditional home construction.
The deal is part of the government’s $5-billion social and affordable homes plan which aims to deliver 13,500 houses.
In announcing the tie-up with Volo Modular, housing minister Meaghan Scanlon said the impact national housing pressures were having on Queensland were well known.
“Since 2015, we’ve delivered on average more than 10 homes per week and we’re doing more with a record investment and initiatives like this to get more homes off the ground,” she said.
“Through our partnership with modular home manufacturers, new social housing homes will be delivered across Queensland in areas such as Ipswich, Logan, Central Queensland, Wide Bay Burnett and rural and regional Queensland.”
The minister said of the homes to be delivered by year’s end, 53 would accommodate Queensland’s most vulnerable and another 64 would go to frontline workers in regional communities.
Including traditional house builds, construction is under way on about 600 new government-owned homes across the state.
“Production of modern homes is really ramping up now with homes already rolling out from the factories of our 11 industry partners as well as from QBuild’s Rapid Accommodation and Apprenticeships Centre at Eagle Farm,” public works and procurement minister Mick de Brenni said.
Volo Modular’s Rick Bell said he company would deliver the 18 homes before Christmas.
The Eidsvold homes could be installed in one day, while the Gympie homes would be completed in two.
“People now are realising they can have an amazing home manufactured in a factory in a quarter of the timeframe it takes for a traditional build,” he said.
The rising cost of construction, plus the nation-wide shortage of housing, has seen modular homes become increasingly popular.
In fact, the Housing Industry Association, says that a “vast number of construction projects will move to offsite construction and modular or systems-based construction methods over the next 5, 10 and 20 years”.
