Can modular apartments save Australia’s housing pipeline? 

Australia’s apartment pipeline has stalled and one industry leader is warning the numbers simply “don’t work”, while the answer could lie instead in factory production. Apartment approvals plunged almost 25 per cent in August with just 3,268 approved nationally in the month, 19.8 per cent below the 12-month average, according to the ABS data. Meanwhile, Australia is around 124,000 homes behind its Housing Accord target after two years, according to UDIA National. Apartments.com.au CEO Mike Bird said modular construction could be what finally gets the country’s stalled apartment projects off the ground. “A lot of people assume that if a project has planning approval, the homes are on their way. That’s rarely the case at the moment,” he said. “We track thousands of developments, and there’s a significant pipeline of approved apartment projects across the country that simply haven’t moved. “They’re not stalled because the developer has lost interest. They’re stalled because the numbers don’t work.” MORE: Brutal: Aussies stuck in ‘unfair’ Albo scheme Just 3,268 apartments were approved nationally in August. Apartments CEO Mike Bird. Since the pandemic, prices received by building const...