AMPLIFY has welcomed the South Australian Government’s commitment to build 120 new prefab homes as a big step in the right direction in addressing the housing crisis.
The announcement was made ahead of a roundtable today between AMPLIFY, industry leaders, community members and South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas and Housing Minister Nick Champion.
“We’re in a national housing crisis and the community is demanding bigger, bolder action from governments. Prefab has a key role to play if we are to address the urgent need for more homes, sooner,” said AMPLIFY Chair and Founder, Paul Bassat.
“We believe that governments across Australia can drive significant growth in the number of prefab homes by using their procurement power, modernising regulations and by creating the jobs of the future for this industry. This could mean building more social and affordable prefab homes, fast tracking prefab approvals and bite-size qualifications in modern methods of construction
“This will lead to homes being built more quickly and cheaply. South Australia is known as the innovation state and what this announcement shows is this innovative spirit in action.”
Prefab housing overcomes barriers to increasing supply, including declining construction sector productivity, insufficient labour supply and construction delays – and it has the support of South Australians.
“There is strong support for prefab housing in South Australia, with recent AMPLIFY polling finding 73 per cent of South Australians support expanding the use of prefab housing. This is above the national average,” AMPLIFY Chief Policy and Research Officer Dr Rory Gallagher said.
“South Australians’ support for prefab housing is driven by their appetite for lower costs and quicker construction. Given the public, industry and Government support for prefab in South Australia, there is a real opportunity to establish the state as the nation’s prefab leader.”
South Australian based Prefab advocate and managing director of Das Studio, Dino Vrynios, said he was excited by the government’s announcement.
“Over the past decade I’ve been working hard with my team at Das Studio and likeminded industry partners to demonstrate what an evolution of construction could look like using modern methods of construction,” he said.
“We’ve been able to do this in the education and health sectors, and are excited about the opportunity to apply this to support new pathways for housing more South Australians.”
South Australian AMPLIFY community members will also be attending the roundtable sharing their insights on the housing crisis and their views on prefab.
Priscilla Taylor from Adelaide said she was attending to “support Amplify’s bipartisan work on Australia’s housing shortage crisis - I want to see South Australia lead the way in the adoption of prefab”.
Christine Robertson OAM, also from Adelaide, said: “I advocate for solutions that are practical, scalable, and community led. The South Australian Government should act with the clarity and courage needed to tackle the housing crisis”.
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