HIA Launches Consultation Paper on Regulatory Barriers Confronting Offsite Construction

Project launched in collaboration with AMGC to break down barriers to advance offsite construction.

Australia’s building codes and standards, along with the regulatory systems that apply to zoning land and approving the construction of buildings, are based on traditionally (conventionally) constructed buildings, products, practices and systems.

As a consequence, they introduce challenges with regulatory acceptance and approvals with respect to offsite construction methods, including prefabricated (prefab) and modular construction.

This can be time consuming and costly and results in inconsistent outcomes for industry and consumers, with the potential for non-approval. This can also result in manufacturers and suppliers being hesitant to bring new products and systems to market given the inconsistency and uncertainty.

Given the likelihood of a steady increase in fast-tracked building construction, a vast number of construction projects including housing, will move to offsite construction and modular or systems-based construction methods over the next 5, 10 and 20 years.

It is therefore critical that there is a clear understanding of the regulatory barriers that exist today and that potential solutions are identified now.

HIA Project

HIA is undertaking a project on behalf of the AMGC’s Prefab Innovation Hub to identify and break down these barriers to streamline approval and acceptance.

This project will develop a report that identifies and analyses the regulatory barriers for offsite construction in housing.

The report will investigate the identified barriers in detail and identify recommendations and/or proposals to overcome these barriers and enable more tailored planning and building regimes that appropriately recognises offsite construction systems.

Recommendations may include: changes to the National Construction Code (NCC), Australian Standards and State planning and building regulatory frameworks.

This briefing paper is part of the first phase of the project providing background information and identifying key issues that have been identified by the project team.

It will be supported by targeted consultation which involves interviewing and/or surveying interested parties to further identify and examine regulatory barriers for offsite construction.

Swinburne University of Technology (SUT) is undertaking the research and development work on this project on behalf of HIA, and the project is one of several the HIA is collaborating with the Prefab Innovation Hub.

The briefing paper and consultation survey is available from 1 December to 27 January for stakeholders to review and provide comments.