A breakthrough in 3D printing could change how the nation tackles housing supply challenges.
In Melbourne’s outer west and Perth’s northern suburbs, two homes have taken shape through the unconventional method of 3D printing, and they’re different from anything Australia has seen before.
To construct a home with this technology, a 3D printer uses a computerised blueprint to print a physical structure in layers with a specialised concrete mix.
As Australia works towards meeting its National Housing Accord target of 1.2 million new homes by 2029, doubts remain over how the nation can get there.
Despite positive building approval numbers, numbers over the first year of the Accord have shown how far behind we are in reaching this goal.
This has left the industry to look at other ways Australia could speed up home building with 3D printing noted as a potential option.
While an industry still in its infancy, the method has slowly made its way across Australia.
Contec Australia built a multi-storey home in Tapping, WA with 3D printing. Picture: Contec Australia
The first 3D printed home built in the country was a single-storey house completed in Gymea Bay, NSW. The home was finished in May 2023 after 14 hours of actual printing time across two days.
In May 2025, the NSW government completed two homes in Dubbo using 3D printing. These were delivered in 20 weeks, compared to the usual 40-week timeline for traditional builds.
The concrete structures themselves were printed in just 16 days.
Overseas, the technology has reached new heights. In Texas, a 3D printer completed a community of 100 homes in Wolf Ranch, becoming one of the first examples of a 3D printed neighbourhood.
But until recently, in Australia, the technology has only been tested on single-storey homes.
Now, in Western Australia, Contec Australia has completed a multi-storey 3D printed concrete home which took 18 hours of active printing time. The company said the entire build was finished in five months.
Using a machine from the Netherlands, the new home, located in Tapping, WA, was constructed using a concrete mix Contec said is more than three times the strength of standard bricks.
Using 3D printing for multi-storey homes is a big breakthrough in the housing construction industry, and Contec isn’t the only pioneer pursuing this advancement.
A house in Melbourne’s outer west suburb of Wyndham has also used the technology through Luyten, an Australian-owned company that specialises in large-scale 3D construction printers.
Using its own 3D printer, Luyten built a multi-storey home in Wyndham, Victoria. Picture: Luyten
Luyten CEO Ahmed Mahil said the technology took three weeks to print the home, with just roofing sheets remaining to be installed.
The CEO is so confident in his company’s ability to produce homes with this method, that he’s decided to be the guinea pig.
“I don't have a house myself and I decided to live in it to show that it's not just false confidence or some entrepreneurial unconstrained enthusiasm,” Mr Mahil said.
“Our philosophy is simple. In Australia, we are not after making billionaires. We are after equipping the backbone of the industry which is the small and medium-sized enterprise that actually holds most weight in any kind of construction boom like this.”
How 3D printing could benefit builders
Many industry bodies have noted productivity as a major barrier to building more homes.
In fact, the Productivity Commission found in its “Housing construction productivity: Can we fix it?” report that Australia is completing half as many homes per hour worked compared to 1995.
Advocates for 3D printing say the technology is one way to surpass this barrier due to its efficiency and speed.
According to advocates, 3D printing slashes construction times and costs. Picture: Contec Australia
“Meeting future housing demand will require more than traditional approaches alone. 3D concrete printing offers an innovative solution that complements existing methods, delivering projects with greater speed, cost efficiencies, sustainability, and design flexibility,” Contec founder Mark D’Alessandro said.
According to Contec, 3D printing delivers cost benefits over traditional methods as it eliminates formwork, propping and scaffolding.
There is also design flexibility, with many 3D printed homes featuring curved walls, structural columns and architectural detailing printed directly into walls.
Mr Mahil said 3D printing can help small builders increase efficiency significantly. By Luyten’s estimates, a builder constructing three houses a year could increase output to 10 houses using one printer. With two printers, that number could rise to 50 houses a year.
He said this is because 3D printing reduces the need for multiple tradespeople on a project.
“When building a home, you have to first start with the slab. Then you have the timber framer, a bricklayer, a plasterer and a cladding person because there are design guidelines, and then there is rockwool and insulation,” he said.
“Meanwhile, you also have to work on their schedule as a builder.”
And with a current shortage of skilled tradespeople in the housing construction industry, any ability to mitigate the issue of worker availability is welcome.
Luyten estimates builders constructing three houses a year could increase output to 10 houses with one printer. Picture: Luyten
Another benefit is the versatility of the technology, particularly for prefabricated homes, which have been seen as a potential solution to supply shortages.
Mr Mahil said 3D printing could help cut costs associated with prefabrication as well as introduce more customisation options.
“A house is the most significant purchase of anyone's life, and I think freedom of design is a worthy cause that could increase customisation of houses for people for their own purposes,” he said.
The big picture
Despite its growth overseas and now in Australia, 3D printing is still only slowly being embraced by governments.
Mr Mahil said Luyten's project had support from the federal government but noted state governments remain more sceptical. He encouraged governments to “get onto 3D printing before the train leaves”.
“The reason we have a surge in sales of printers in Saudi Arabia and the USA is because they both are preparing for the [FIFA] World Cups. This will help these governments in both countries,” he said.
Certainly, 3D printing isn’t being proposed as a construction method to supersede the traditional ways of working. This technology is still very specific in the type of home that it can produce. But could it be a tool in the nation’s arsenal to speed up home building? Those in the industry have hope.
“If you can 3D print a house, you can 3D print a rocket,” Mr Mahil said.
“Other equivalent economies are putting incentives to make their builders more resilient - to build smarter.
“The right way to do this is to encourage as many folks [as possible] to adopt it and then we’ll start seeing even more fruits out of this technology.”
Are you interested in learning about the latest in buying and building new? Check out our New Homes section.
English (US) · 