Author: Haven Home Safe CEO Trudi Ray
Drawing on their recent experiences, Haven Home Safe explores how different funding and partnership approaches to modular housing can deliver regional success. Â
Across regional Victoria, the demand for affordable, high-quality, and rapidly deliverable housing has never been greater. Regional and rural communities face mounting pressures from population growth, workforce shortages, and the ongoing impacts of natural disasters exacerbating the affordability and supply of housing.
Traditional housing models often fail to deliver on speed, scale and sustainability. Modular housing offers a transformative solution—combining innovation in design and construction with flexibility in deployment, to meet the diverse needs of regional communities.
An exploration on modular is not merely about building homes— it’s about building resilient communities, stimulating local economies, and setting a new standard of innovation in regional development that meets people’s needs.
Here, we explore what we’ve learnt through working with modular construction companies, local government and philanthropic partners, to deliver modular homes for regional communities.
Overcoming construction challenges
Some of the key challenges facing regional and rural communities trying to increase their social and affordable housing supply include a skilled labour shortage and limited access to affordable building materials[1]. In many regional towns the supply challenges are exacerbated by relentless and costly repairs and rebuilds following weather events[2] such as flood, fire and storms.
The Albanese Government’s Housing Construction Apprenticeship program to fund 60,000 apprentices commenced in July 2025. Whilst we appreciate forward-thinking for future need, these regions do not have the luxury of time for people to go through an apprenticeship. They need housing now.
Modular construction is one way to address the challenges of the skilled labour shortage. Modular is an innovative building approach that can deliver modern, energy-efficient homes for regional areas at scale and in significantly shorter timeframes.
Through this method the modules are built in a warehouse using a staged approach before being transported to the building site where full site-works and stumping happen prior to the different modules being craned into position. On-site carpentry joins the modules together, like a complex jigsaw, delivering the same end-product as traditional construction methods.
This approach still delivers a permanent dwelling but can be done in a 6–12-month timeframe due to the elimination of weather delays and mitigating materials and workforce shortages due warehouse proximity to more skilled workers, other warehouses, factories and ports.
As the need to reduce our environmental footprint becomes more urgent, modular construction is also a more sustainable solution. The process reduces material waste with approximately 3 per cent of construction materials ending up in landfill. Additionally, the use of timber framing and wood products reduces emissions compared with the high embodied carbon from the production of steel framing.
Modular in Horsham
We have seen firsthand the benefits of modular construction. In 2023, a development we had been working on in the rural city of Horsham (300kms from Melbourne) hit a roadblock.
There were no local building companies that could meet our development requirements. We needed to maximise our land use without compromising on liveability and housing quality for residents. We also needed to deliver the development within a 12-month period.
A tender process revealed modular construction company ARKit to be the most suitable builder to deliver the project. Eleven months later, in November 2024, we took handover of the development which consisted of 25 homes (3 x one-bedroom and 22 x two-bedroom), each built using modular construction methods.
While the need for increased social and affordable housing in regional areas is glaring, the response from State and Federal Governments to help build and support essential infrastructure in regional areas isn’t matching the level of crisis. Access to land and appropriate planning permission remain further hurdles.
Fortunately for committed councils, philanthropic partners, and investors, they can use their influence to overcome these challenges.
Working with Mount Alexander Shire
We have seen firsthand what a commitment to actively increasing social and affordable housing looks like through a partnership with Mount Alexander Shire. We have been working alongside the Shire in an advice capacity, helping them understand the nuances of building and managing community housing.
This area of Victoria includes many beautiful towns which have become popular tourist destinations, pushing up housing prices to unobtainable levels. The Shire is dedicated to ensuring that key workers and residents aren’t forced out of town and can continue to access affordable housing options.
In 2021, the Mount Alexander Shire Council appointed a designated housing solutions broker. They are the first Council to do this, demonstrating a commitment to funding and investing in housing innovation.
This approach is proving to be fruitful with the Council partnering with Maldon and District Community Bank to create their own affordable housing development. This will form part of their Mount Alexander Affordable Housing Trust. The development of these two homes working with Haven Home Safe will deliver real outcomes towards reducing housing insecurity and affordability in Mount Alexander Shire. The homes will be constructed using modular building methods.
Whilst two homes are only the start of what is needed, this unique partnership and development approach signifies a growing community momentum which, we believe, will snowball into something bigger, fueled by their tenacity and deep local pride to keep their regional and rural towns thriving. It is a testament to the impact regional communities can have when they are collaborative and innovative in their approach to deliver affordable housing solutions.
This bold move will pave the way for more regional and rural communities to take control and independently address the housing shortages and affordability stifling their growth. However, the costs of building regionally require additional subsidies and investment, which the community housing sector and its partners continue to grapple with, as they simply can’t go it alone.
In My Back Yard
The regional housing crisis coupled with no sustained Government funding pipelines for regional Victoria has also influenced Haven Home Safe to look for alternative solutions to deliver housing supply. In a report. commissioned with our partners Hatch in 2023, we discovered that planning reforms would unlock opportunities for houses on large blocks with huge, underutilised backyards so prevalent in regional and rural communities, to pave the way for an IMBY – a small second home In My Back Yard (IMBY).
While we have been advocating for more organisations to also consider the IMBY solutions, we are seeking funding to help bring this work to life. Fortunately, we have been approached by a philanthropic partner eager to play their part in easing the housing crisis. With their generous support we are now getting ready to turn sod of this development which will include both a three-bedroom home and two-bedroom IMBY, doubling the housing outcomes for that block of land.
The IMBY will be constructed using modular building methods – making it easy to crane onto site and ensuring minimal disturbance for the other home sharing the block. Whilst the outcome is once again small compared with the overall need for the Bendigo community, it will dramatically change the lives of a few people, and we remain hopeful that it also signifies the beginning of different and innovative approaches to solve the housing crisis.
We hope more philanthropically minded individuals and organisations will proactively explore the impact they can have.
Partnering for success
Whilst scale in regional and rural areas is what is really needed to address the housing crisis, we recognise the capital required to make this achievable is incredibly challenging for community housing providers who, as non-profit organisations, cannot wear that risk alone. Innovative partnerships are critical to achieve this.
We also know community appetite for density is now changing in regional areas, largely through the increase in apartments that demonstrate how density can be done well, meeting the needs and nuances of regional towns and supporting local workers, students and the elderly who all deserve a quality and well-connected place to live.
Haven Home Safe is committed to investing in solutions that don’t just settle for the status quo, but rather embrace collaboration, innovation and people-focused outcomes that maintain the lifeblood of our regional and rural communities.
[1] AHURI, 2024, Disruption in regional housing: Policy responses for more resilient markets pg 7.
[2] Joanne Walker Consulting, 2022, Rural Housing: Liveability, Availability and Affordability pg 8.
