Modern methods of construction could speed up how Australia builds homes. What will it take to turbocharge the industry?
'Modern methods of construction' are often cited as a potential housing fix for Australia. Image: Getty
On 20 August, 2025, the NSW chapter of the Property Council of Australia assembled a team of thought leaders to discuss how innovations in construction – and specifically, "modern methods of construction" – have the potential to close construction’s productivity gap by building more efficiently.
Caryn Kakas, head of housing strategy at ANZ; Leah Singer director of construction consultancy Entwine; Matthew Aitchison, CEO of Building 4.0 CRC; and Sarah Kay, CEO of architectural firm Woods Bagot, shared their thoughts on the potential of modern construction methods in a discussion moderated by Urbis’ director of economics and property, Clinton Ostwald.
One thing they all agreed on is that for starters, the sector needs a new name.
What are the new methods, and will they save time?
“Modern methods of construction” or “MMC” generally refers to any way of going about constructing a building outside of the “traditional” technique. That includes prefabrication, modular dwellings, off-site manufacturing and the use of 3D printing and robotics.
According to Ms Singer, this catch-all term rather misses the point.
“There's a conflation of thinking that MMC or off-site construction is going to automatically give you time and cost benefits,” she explained.
That is not the case, and in fact off-site manufacturing is hardly “new” in many ways, when one considers that the Sydney Opera House included a substantial off-site component in the manufacture of its iconic cladding system.
“But nobody ever cites [the Sydney Opera House] in terms of time and cost benefits,” Ms Singer noted.
When bandied about in today’s conversation, particularly for its potential to increase productivity, Ms Singer explained that “what's really being discussed is mass production”.
But she sees that it's not enough to merely use these new methods of construction. It's how they are used that holds the potential to save time and money.
“I can't stress this enough, if you want time and cost benefits, you need standardisation and repeatability,” she said.
Changing the way we think about design
Ms Singer’s comment was echoed in insights from Ms Kay, who shared her experience from an architectural perspective, arguing that the progress in the sector really requires a transformation of thinking in how the design of buildings is approached.
She argued for a design process that breaks down individual elements of a build into a “kit-of-parts”.
"It’s really about moving away from designing things using materials to designing things using components or products."
Ms Kay explained that at Woods Bagot, they took this approach during a project for Schools Infrastructure New South Wales where they worked to design "a kit-of-parts that would create a school and then moving into designing what those parts are and what those components are”.
It may seem simple, but Ms Kay explained that it was quite different from the traditional thinking of “designing a building from materials”.
Here, the scale of the project allowed for repeatability and the savings that come with that. But when it comes to the housing market, the small-scale nature of each home build poses a hurdle.
Moderator Clinton Ostwald with Sarah Kay. Image: Property Council
The biggest challenge
While the sector is often thought to be in its infancy, modular construction and off-site construction has actually been around for quite some time (see: Sydney Opera house cladding). What lends the sector its youthful association, is that Australians cannot see these methods playing out at scale.
And that’s because largely, they are not. The industry remains challenged by the ability to scale up.
According to Mr Aitchison, the most common need that he hears from players in the space is that to grow, businesses are desperately in need of: “Number one, pipeline. Two, pipeline. And three, a bit more pipeline”.
In essence, they haven’t got the steady demand to build reliably.
From his perspective, the major way that governments could help is by doing what he calls “demand aggregation”. So, “pulling all of their discrete pipelines together to make a larger pipeline into which this industry can dip”.
According to Ms Kay, it’s a space she’d like to see private sector participate in, too.
“Having the private sectors pipeline come together would have enormous impact, and it's not that then there's no competitive advantage or that [volume builders] would all be building the same house, we're talking again about a ‘kit-of-parts’. There are components that don't need to be different, and so thinking about what those components are, and aggregating the demand for those, I think could have equal impact.”
Bathroom pods, internal walling systems, and stairs are some examples of what these could be, but the possibilities are endless.
When it comes to the future, bringing governments, private entities and other stakeholders together to change the way designing buildings is approached is no small task.
Ms Kay suggested that on an individual level, one small step from each entity in the industry could go a long way towards transitioning to a new way of building.
“In every new project that you do, if you're a developer or a designer or a builder, choose one thing that you could shift from creating out of a combination of trades and materials to buying as a product. We can all do that: just one thing at a time”.
Are you interested in learning more about home-building in Australia? Check out our dedicated New Homes section.
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