A vital conversation highlighting how Australia’s prefabrication industry can help address Australia’s housing crisis was at the centre of the Chartered Institute of Building’s panel discussion at this year’s Melbourne Build, writes Maricel Cavestany, CIOB’s Regional Manager for Oceania.
Alongside my colleague, Isaac Ryan, our Policy and Government Manager, we were proud to partner with Melbourne Build to highlight the role we believe modern methods of construction (MMC), typically involving a high degree of prefabrication, can play in shaping the future of housing.
The session, expertly moderated by Peter Wong MCIOB, CIOB Melbourne Hub Chair and Associate Dean – Construction Management at RMIT, brought together a panel of leading thinkers and practitioners: Waco Tao, Executive Chair of Prefab Council Australia; Adam Jordan MCIOB, Asia Pacific Lead at Bryden Wood; and Hillary Naish from the Manufacturing Alliance.
Our decision to lead this conversation stemmed from a recognition that while prefabrication is often cited as a solution to housing shortages, the deeper structural issues facing the industry are rarely addressed.
As Peter Wong said in his opening remarks: “We often ask how prefab can help the housing crisis, but we must first ask how we can help the prefab industry and the construction sector.”
That shift in perspective defined our session. Rather than treating MMC as a quick fix for housing supply, we discussed how policy, education, and industry collaboration must evolve to really enable it.
The first question we tackled was whether the current prefab and construction sectors can meet housing demand without additional support. The answer, agreed across the panel, was no.
As Tao pointed out, the sector is still struggling to get off the ground due to the absence of a national strategy and a fragile supply chain. Without targeted investment and clear policy direction, prefab cannot scale to meet Australia’s needs.
I believe Australia has a real chance to rethink how we build homes. By using new manufacturing technologies and investing in skills and training, we can work together to create a consistent, sustainable, and scalable housing system.
Hillary Naish highlighted the need to move beyond a fragmented, “project-by-project” mindset toward a unified strategy which integrates workforce development, manufacturing capacity, and common standards to drive transformative change.
Meanwhile, Adam Jordan raised another critical point – while the technology exists, client education and early engagement are lagging behind. He spoke about how many developers still see prefab as niche or risky.
But as Adam reminded the audience, traditional construction methods are no longer sufficient to deliver housing quickly, sustainably, and affordably. MMC offers a viable, scalable alternative, provided it has the right support and is designed in the right way from the start to leverage the potential benefits.
The panel identified several practical measures to help the prefab sector thrive:
- Support local manufacturing through incentives and streamlined procurement
- Develop a national skills framework to train the next generation of prefab professionals
- Educate clients and developers early in the design process to minimise the risk prefab projects
- Shift public perceptions by promoting prefab’s quality, innovation, and sustainability benefits.
One of the more powerful statements of the day came from Tao, who captured both the urgency and the promise of prefab construction.
He told the room: “Prefab is no longer a fringe idea – it’s a proven, scalable solution to Australia’s housing crisis. With the right support, we can deliver homes that are faster to build, more affordable to own, and better for the planet. The time to act is now.”
I was delighted to see our session was packed with developers, contractors, architects, and policymakers eager to join the conversation. We fielded plenty of questions from the audience too, highlighting the scale of interest – and misconceptions – surrounding MMC.
One audience member asked if the perception of low quality remains a barrier, but the panel was quick to shut it down, insisting it’s a myth.
In fact, prefab homes today are precision-engineered, energy-efficient, and designed for longevity. As I said during the discussion, prefab is not about cutting corners – it’s about building smarter, cleaner, and faster.
Another audience member asked about Australia’s vast geography and the logistics of transporting prefab modules. Adam Jordan explained this does not have to be a challenge and innovative solutions, including flat-pack systems and other ‘kits of parts’ for rapid site assembly already exist to overcome it.
The session closed with a clear call to action. Together, we committed to advocating for a national prefab strategy through engagement with government and industry and supporting skills development and education through CPD programmes and academic partnerships. As always, we at CIOB will continue to ensure our members’ voices are represented in future policy discussions.
In summary, it’s our view that MMC has the potential to transform how we build homes in Australia – but only if we invest in the people, systems, and strategies behind it. CIOB is committed to being a catalyst for that change.
The housing crisis remains one of Australia’s most pressing challenges. Prefabrication offers not just a technological solution, but a new way of thinking about how we design, deliver, and ensure the sustainability of our built environment.
