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The Commonwealth Bank has become the first major bank to make financing easier for prefabricated houses. The bank has agreed to sponsor the development of a standard form contract for the modern methods of construction (MMC) sector to help support home buyers and manufacturers. Source: Timberbiz Standard-form contracts for traditional on-site construction are widely available and accepted by banks, allowing home buyers to enter into an agreement and commence dwelling construction on-site with bank finance. However, this streamlined process does not currently exist for the prefabricated construction industry where homes are built off-site. At the Treasurer’s Investor Roundtable in November, banks and other investors committed to addressing barriers to financing modern methods of construction, in particular prefabricated housing. “Prefabricated construction is fast, efficient and can play a meaningful role in addressing Australia’s housing shortage. To date however, everything about construction has been created with traditional, onsite work in mind, and we need to rapidly reimagine how we support this industry to unlock scale and deliver more quality and sustainable homes to market sooner,” said Mike Vacy-Lyle, Group Executive Business Bank at CBA. “CBA has a track record of supporting innovative construction companies, including our work with Modscape since 2017, to bring cutting-edge home-building technology to Australia. Now, we’re proudly joining prefabAUS to work closely with and support local manufacturers. Overseas in countries like Sweden, 80 per cent of houses are being factory built, and we would expect to see Australia’s prefabricated construction sector expand rapidly,” he said. The bank also plans to introduce policy changes later this quarter, to help improve access to finance for those Australians who are considering purchasing a prefabricated home. Under the new policy, which is a first among the major banks, Commonwealth Bank will enable customers to access progress payments prior to the property being affixed to land, up to 60% of the total contract price, rather than the customer having to fund up to 90% of the upfront costs, which has previously been the case. Customers who use an accredited CommBank prefab manufacturer to construct their property will be able to access progress payments up to 80% of the total contract price. “While prefabricated homes are a great housing option for many Australians, they have been historically challenging to finance, with customers needing to cover much of the upfront costs,” said Michael Baumann, Executive General Manager Home Buying at CBA. “We want to alleviate some of the financial barriers associated with prefabricated properties. We believe these upcoming changes will help to achieve just that, giving more Australians the chance to look at this way of building a home, which could, in turn, help deliver more supply to market faster.” Damien Crough, founding director of Australia’s peak body for the off-site construction industry, said working with CBA was significant in overcoming barriers facing the prefabricated housing sector and solidifying its role in addressing Australia’s housing shortage. “With support from CBA, prefabAUS will tackle some of the challenges facing our members and their clients. We are excited to unlock the potential of off-site construction to address one of the nation’s most critical challenges—providing access to high-quality housing at pace,” Mr Crough said. “Utilising prefabrication, a house constructed in a controlled factory environment is built in 10 to 12 weeks, compared to around 18-plus months through conventional building,” he added. Jan Gyrn, Chief Executive Officer of Modscape, a leading offsite manufacturing company in Australia, welcomed the collaboration between CBA and prefabAUS. “With support from the CBA, we’ve installed a new robotic line at our facility in Essendon Fields that is the first and most advanced of its type in the Southern Hemisphere,” he said. “It plays a crucial role in facilitating the delivery of large-scale residential projects such as the Affordable Housing Project in Cairns, which is the biggest modular social and affordable housing project in Australia and will see 1,008 volumetric timber modules delivered. “We’re able to complete eight modules a day, providing a great option for the rapid delivery of much needed homes for Australians,” Mr Gyrn said.  

The Greens’ continued opposition to Australia’s sustainable native forestry industries shows how inaccurate, regressive and outdated their arguments are in the political discourse. . Source: Timberbiz The science shows the enormous environmental and climate – not to mention critical economic benefits the sector provides for Australia, Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Forest Products Association (AFPA), Diana Hallam said AFPA was responding to a statement by the Greens that under their plan the NSW Government would be able to access $140.4 million of Commonwealth funding per year, for 20 years, contingent on an end to all native forest logging in the state. “Like a broken record and far from the progressive force they claim to be, the Greens have announced they’re taking a position to end native forestry to the Federal Election,” Ms Hallam said. “Make no mistake, this stance aims to destroy the economic livelihoods of rural communities, increase bushfire risks across the country, hamper our ability to sequester carbon to fight climate change, offshore more jobs and force Australia to rely on more imported native hardwood for essential products – often from countries that don’t adhere to our world leading forestry management practices. The Greens are environmentally irresponsible.” The United Nations’ own science from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) declares – “A sustainable forest management strategy aimed at maintaining or increasing forest carbon stocks, while producing an annual sustained yield of timber, fibre or energy from the forest, will generate the largest sustained mitigation benefit.” – IPCC 4th Assessment. Scientific studies demonstrate that sustainable timber harvesting results in reduced wildfire risk, and contrary to what the Greens like to claim – that it has minimal impact on koala populations, which are at far greater risk from development, traffic, feral animals and other pests and diseases like chlamydia. “It’s really disappointing that the Greens keep trashing this wonderful industry to drive clickbait donations from supporters they continually mislead and deceive. “They really should ask themselves how they’ll deal with decimated local communities and economies, dodgy imports and the hugely increased fire risks locked up forests create – if they succeed,” Ms Hallam said. “Thankfully, both the Albanese Government, the Coalition and a number of other minor parties and independents are aware of the science and recognise the critical importance of native forestry to our nation. “They recognise that we are world leaders in sustainable forestry management which is why they back a sector that provides the lifeblood in many parts of regional Australia. This Federal Election – we need more science informing the political debate, not outdated and irrelevant spin from the Greens.”