Off-site constructed housing in NSW: opportunities and barriers for affordable housing provision

Despite the fact that many industry sectors have adopted smart and modern technologies to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century, the Australian residential construction industry has been hesitant to adopt off-site construction (OSC) techniques as an innovative approach to increase housing supply and affordability. This study focuses the opportunities and challenges related to OSC as a new form of affordable housing provided by Community Housing Providers (CHPs). The study examines the influences of planning and regulatory framework in New South Wales and on the ability of CHPs adopt OSC methods. The research reveals why OSC has not emerged as a cost-effective productive alternative to conventional building methods, especially for CHPs. The study focuses on the experiences of CHPs that have attempted to use OSC to provide housing to low-income households and identifies construction industry concerns about the use of OSC and the regulatory mechanism that governs this building process. As a result, the study emphasises the importance of regulatory reform to recognise OSC as a mainstream construction process, and how such recognition can benefit the construction industry in general, and CHPs acting as developers in particular.