ModHomes program to deliver 200 modular homes for social housing in Tasmania

A new state government program will see at least 200 modular homes built for social housing in Tasmania across the next four years.

At least 200 modular homes will be rolled out on state-owned land over the next four years as part of a plan to increase social housing stock across Tasmania.

Building and construction firms can now tender for the ModHomes Program, which will seek to deliver a minimum of 50 modular homes per annum.

The factory-produced units will be placed on land owned by the Director of Housing.

State Development, Construction and Housing Minister Guy Barnett said the program would not only help more Tasmanians access social and affordable housing quicker but it would also provide training opportunities for young people.

Liberal minister Guy Barnett speaks to the media in Parliament House in Hobart on Thursday, September 29, 2022.

“There’s a lot of quality operators out there with a lot of interest to build these … homes,” he said.

“It’ll take stress off the building and construction sector on-site and allow for growth off-site. So these modular homes will be built and then actually transferred and put onto a Housing Tasmania property, a vacant block of land and simply [put] in place and there … ready to go.”

Ravenswood social housing tenant Susan Bryce, who lives with her six children, recently had a two-bedroom modular home placed on her Housing Tasmania property under the backyard units initiative, as her family were becoming increasingly cramped in their existing three-bedroom house.

“This is going to make a massive change,” she said. “I can’t wait.”

Labor frontbencher Dean Winter said he wasn’t convinced the government could deliver the program effectively.

“We sincerely hope for the sake of Tasmanians sleeping rough and who are paying the highest rents anywhere in the country, that [Mr Barnett] actually delivers something but as we’ve seen across all the portfolios he’s ever been involved in, I think that’s very unlikely,” he said.

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