In a significant injection of public funds into the housing sector, the National Reconstruction Fund (NRF) has allocated $120 million to Built Living, an Australian startup specialising in modular apartment construction. The funds will be used to build a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility on the outskirts of Perth, Western Australia, with the capacity to produce up to 2,000 apartments each year.
The investment underscores the Albanese government’s push to revive domestic manufacturing under the NRF, a $15 billion fund established in 2023 to support projects in priority areas such as renewables, medical products, and advanced manufacturing. Modular construction — where building components are prefabricated in a factory and assembled on-site — has been touted as a potential solution to Australia’s chronic housing shortage, which has seen rents and home prices soar.
Built Living, which has previously completed smaller modular projects, says its new factory will create hundreds of skilled manufacturing jobs and reduce construction times by up to 40% compared to traditional methods. The company claims the facility will be one of the most advanced of its kind in the country, employing automated production lines to produce high-quality, energy-efficient apartments at scale.
However, the deal has drawn mixed reactions. Housing industry groups have welcomed the move as a way to accelerate supply, while some economists caution that government backing of a single private company carries risks. Past targeted manufacturing grants have faced criticism for poor value-for-money or failure to deliver expected jobs. The NRF itself has been slow to deploy capital, with only a handful of projects announced since its inception.
The Western Australian government has also expressed support, noting that the facility will help diversify the state’s economy beyond mining and resources. Local councils have signalled interest in using modular apartments for public housing projects, which could provide a steady pipeline of orders for Built Living.
If successful, the facility could mark a turning point for modular construction in Australia, an industry that has struggled to gain traction due to high upfront costs and fragmented demand. The NRF’s backing provides Built Living with the capital needed to achieve economies of scale, but the company will need to secure firm orders to justify the investment.