A construction breakthrough is being heralded as a potential new dawn for Australia's housing crisis, as the country's biggest lender opens the financial floodgates for high-speed prefabricated home building.
Commonwealth Bank is expanding its financing options for assessed off-site builders, potentially unlocking access to home ownership for a broader range of Australians.
The move comes as prefabricated construction gains traction as a rapid and efficient alternative to traditional on-site building methods.
These facilities, some of which incorporate automated systems, are emerging across the country.
The production line approach allows for houses to be constructed in a controlled factory environment, far quicker than conventional methods.
"The overall build time might range between 4 to 12 weeks," Jan Gyrn, co-founder and chief executive of Modscape, one of Australia's largest pre-fabrication companies, said.
"It's generally installed in one day."
The availability of finance has been a significant impediment to the wider adoption of prefabricated homes in Australia.
Commonwealth's lending boost for assessed offsite builders means customers will be able to access 80 per cent of the price through a loan, whereas previously they'd have to cover most of the cost themselves.
"One of the things holding back the take-up here in Australia was the availability of finance and that's really a big part of the reason why we stepped in," Grant Cairns from CBA said.
"The CBA initiative has opened up another barrier that has prevented Mums and Dads from being able to build a house using offsite methodology," Mr Gyrn said.
Offsite building is more common overseas but with Australia in the midst of a housing crisis, and because pre-fabrication is fast and efficient, the industry says this type of construction will triple in the next five years.
"This is probably one of the most achievable and fast-moving ways to start improving housing supply," Cotality head of research Tim Lawless said.
"Now that we're starting to see major lenders wading into this realm, you'll start to see more and more momentum coming into line and that really starts to open up innovation in a construction sector which is desperate for productivity improvements."
