Sarah and Scott Kenny are building a prefab home on the Sunshine Coast. (Source: Supplied)
A Sunshine Coast couple have shared how they are building a home for $400,000 and it’ll take just 16 weeks to complete. Prefabricated homes are typically cheaper and faster than building a home on site, and experts believe they will play an important role in fixing Australia’s housing shortage.
Sarah Kenny and husband Scott are preparing to move into their new prefab home in the coming weeks. The 42-year-old account manager told Yahoo Finance she decided to look into prefab homes after running into difficulties finding a builder to construct a home on their sloping block of land.
“It fitted within our budget and build time frame, without putting too much stress on building a home,” she said.
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The couple paid just over $400,000 for the home, which is roughly 95 square metres and includes three bedrooms, two bathrooms, an open plan kitchen and lounge area, and a deck.
Kenny said it was much cheaper than building a home on site, with the couple previously quoted about $700,000 to build a home of a similar size with a similar layout.
“It was a lot cheaper, it’s definitely a cheaper option to go that way and it’s been really quick,” she said.
“It’s really no different than if it was being built on the land. You don’t have to worry about the weather, everything’s done inside the factory.”
Kenny said the whole process would take about 16 weeks. (Source: Supplied)
The couple bought their 12-acre block of land about three years ago for about $800,000 and used the equity to finance the prefab home.
“It’s on site at our property now and the builders are there finishing off the final touches and what they need to do,” Kenny said.
“We’ve still got to wait for the plumber and electrician to come and join it up to the power and sort out the septic.
“So we’re just waiting for those couple of trades and a few bits and pieces. So we’re still a couple of weeks away from moving in, but we’re nearly there.”
Australia’s biggest bank, Commonwealth Bank, announced earlier this year that it would offer home loans for prefab homes in a banking first and has now launched its list of assessed manufacturers.
Homeowners previously had to pay up to 90 per cent of construction costs for prefab homes, with banks only lending the final 10 per cent once the home had been transported to the site.
Borrowers can access up to 80 per cent of the contract price if they go with an assessed manufacturer, under the bank’s policy, or up to 60 per cent if they go with another manufacturer.
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Commonwealth Bank has announced it is backing the expansion of modular home builders Oly Homes. (Source: Oly Homes)
CBA executive general manager home buying Marcos Meneguzzi said the policy meant customers could now access funding during the off-site construction phase and wouldn’t have to fund this by themselves.
“Customers building with a CommBank Assessed Manufacturer will now be able to access more funding upfront providing even greater financial flexibility,” he said.
“We are committed to helping more Australians achieve their homeownership goals and believe this change will open the door for more people to explore prefabricated home construction as a potentially faster building method.”
The funding will allow the builder to increase its output to 550 homes a year. (Source: Oly Homes)
CBA has also announced it is backing modular home builder Oly Homes, one of its assessed manufacturers, alongside Modscape, JMB Constructions, Prebuilt and Saltair Modular.
The bank said the funding would support the construction of a new factory on the Sunshine Coast and allow the builder to increase its output from around 200 to 550 homes per year.
CBA group executive business banking, Mike Vacy-Lyle, said the manufacturer was able to build and install a two-bedroom, two-bathroom house in just nine weeks.
“Imagine what could be achieved if this innovative housing model was more widely adopted — bringing more homes to market quickly and easing housing accessibility and affordability pressures across Australia,” he said.
The Australian government invested $54 million in the federal budget to support the construction of prefab and modular homes. It comes as the government pledges to build 1.2 million homes by 2029.
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