HOME NOW: a housing proposal for the housing problem

HOME NOW

A Rapid Pod and Modular Housing Program for Victoria

Proposal for an Affordable, Scalable Response to Housing Shortage and Homelessness

Concept Proposal — 2026

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Victoria does not have the luxury of treating housing supply as a problem that can only be solved through developments taking many years to plan and construct.

People need somewhere to live now.

This proposal recommends the creation of HOME NOW, a Victorian Government rapid-housing program using prefabricated pod, container-style and modular homes to create thousands of small, independent, affordable dwellings on suitable government, council, community-housing and other available land.

The basic proposition is remarkably simple.

If an appropriate self-contained modular dwelling can be purchased for approximately:

$29,000

and the government purchases units upfront, places them on suitable land and rents them at an affordable rate of up to:

$225 PER WEEK

the gross rental calculation is:

$225 × 52 weeks = $11,700 per year

Over five years:

$58,500

in gross rent from a dwelling with an indicative initial purchase price of approximately $29,000.

This does not mean the government makes a $29,500 profit from every unit.

There will also be costs for:

• land preparation;
• transport;
• foundations;
• plumbing;
• electricity;
• water;
• sewerage;
• planning and building approvals;
• landscaping;
• roads and pedestrian access;
• maintenance;
• insurance;
• administration;
• community infrastructure;
• support services; and
• eventual refurbishment or replacement.

Those costs must be transparently included.

But the calculation demonstrates something important:

AFFORDABLE HOUSING DOES NOT NECESSARILY HAVE TO BE A PERMANENT FINANCIAL DRAIN ON GOVERNMENT.

The government can acquire an asset, provide somebody with a home, collect affordable rent, recover part of the investment over time and retain the housing asset for future residents.

That creates a cycle:

INVEST → HOUSE → RENT → REINVEST → HOUSE MORE PEOPLE.

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THE PROBLEM

Australia's homelessness problem is substantial.

The 2021 Census estimated 122,494 Australians were experiencing homelessness.

More recent service data demonstrates that housing insecurity continues to place enormous pressure on the system. Around 289,000 people nationally received assistance from specialist homelessness services during 2024–25, including more than 105,000 clients in Victoria alone.

The Victorian Housing Register shows the scale of unmet demand even more clearly.

As at 31 March 2026, there were:

57,372 new social-housing applications

including:

32,591 priority applications

and:

17,096 applications categorised as Homeless with Support.

Behind every application is not merely a number.

It can mean somebody:

sleeping in a car;

sleeping on somebody else's couch;

cycling through motels;

staying temporarily with friends;

living in unsafe accommodation;

remaining in an abusive household;

sleeping rough;

or simply having no idea where they will be living next month.

At the same time, governments face another problem.

Traditional housing developments are expensive and can take years from announcement to occupancy.

We therefore need two housing strategies operating simultaneously.

Continue building permanent, conventional social and affordable housing.

But also create a rapid housing stream capable of getting smaller dwellings onto suitable land significantly faster.

HOME NOW would become that second stream.

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THE HOME NOW MODEL

The Victorian Government would establish a bulk purchasing program for approved modular housing.

Rather than buying ordinary houses individually in an extraordinarily expensive property market, government could tender for thousands of standardised prefabricated units.

They could include:

STUDIO POD

Suitable for one person.

Bedroom/living space, kitchenette and private bathroom.

ONE-BEDROOM HOME

Suitable for singles and couples requiring greater separation of living and sleeping areas.

ACCESSIBLE POD

Designed for residents with mobility or disability requirements.

DOUBLE/FAMILY MODULE

Two or more modules joined together to accommodate families.

This is important.

The program should not assume that everybody experiencing homelessness has identical needs.

A 23-year-old single person does not require the same dwelling as a mother with three children.

Nor does somebody with significant accessibility requirements.

MODULAR HOUSING SHOULD ACTUALLY BE MODULAR.

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THE FINANCIAL MODEL

Using an indicative purchase price of:

$29,000 PER UNIT

and rent of:

$225 PER WEEK

the basic gross rental model becomes:

Period	Gross Rent
1 week	$225
1 year	$11,700
2 years	$23,400
3 years	$35,100
4 years	$46,800
5 years	$58,500
10 years	$117,000

At the dwelling-purchase level alone, $29,000 is equivalent to roughly 129 weeks of $225 rent, or approximately 2.5 years.

Again, that is not the true project payback period because the delivered cost of a home will be higher than its retail purchase price.

But it demonstrates why the idea deserves proper modelling rather than dismissal.

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SCALE IT UP

The economics become especially interesting when the program is scaled.

100 HOMES

Indicative dwelling purchase:

$2.9 million

Potential gross annual rent:

$1.17 million

Potential five-year gross rent:

$5.85 million

And most importantly:

100 HOUSEHOLDS HOUSED.

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1,000 HOMES

Indicative dwelling purchase:

$29 million

Potential gross annual rent:

$11.7 million

Potential five-year gross rent:

$58.5 million

And:

1,000 HOUSEHOLDS HOUSED.

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10,000 HOMES

Indicative dwelling purchase:

$290 million

Potential gross annual rent:

$117 million

Potential five-year gross rent:

$585 MILLION

And potentially:

10,000 HOUSEHOLDS WITH A HOME.

These numbers are deliberately gross illustrative figures based on a $29,000 dwelling price and full $225 weekly rent.

A government feasibility study would need to publish the complete per-home delivered cost.

That transparency is essential.

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$225 SHOULD BE A CEILING — NOT A PUNISHMENT

There is one modification I would make to the basic $225 model.

For people experiencing homelessness or receiving very low incomes, even $225 a week may sometimes be unaffordable.

Victoria already uses income-based rents in social housing. Public-housing residents generally pay no more than 25 per cent of household income, while broader social-housing rents are typically capped at around 25–30 per cent.

HOME NOW should therefore operate on the principle:

UP TO $225 PER WEEK

with eligible social-housing residents paying:

25% of household income OR $225 per week — whichever is lower.

Government subsidy would cover the affordability gap where necessary.

That preserves the financial model without solving homelessness by giving somebody accommodation they subsequently cannot afford.

The purpose is housing stability.

Not creating another pathway back into homelessness.

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USE LAND WE ALREADY HAVE

The government should conduct a statewide Rapid Housing Land Audit.

It should identify suitable:

• Victorian Government land;
• council land;
• surplus departmental property;
• community-housing land;
• former institutional land;
• temporarily unused redevelopment sites;
• appropriately located transport land;
• church and charitable land offered through partnerships;
• large existing social-housing estates with suitable underused areas; and
• other sites capable of safely supporting additional dwellings.

Not every vacant block will be appropriate.

Homes still require access to:

water;

sewerage;

electricity;

emergency services;

public transport;

shops;

employment;

healthcare;

and community.

The objective should not be:

“Where can we hide homeless people?”

It should be:

“WHERE CAN WE QUICKLY CREATE GOOD SMALL NEIGHBOURHOODS?”

That's a very different philosophy.

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DON'T BUILD HOMELESS CAMPS

This distinction matters enormously.

HOME NOW should not become rows of bleak shipping containers dumped behind fences on industrial land.

If we're going to do that, we've missed the entire bloody point.

😂

People need homes.

Not human storage units.

Sites should therefore incorporate:

trees;

gardens;

lighting;

paths;

laundry facilities where required;

communal areas;

bike storage;

parking where appropriate;

waste collection;

mail facilities;

internet access;

security-by-design;

and connections to transport and services.

Some developments could contain 10 homes.

Others 30.

Others 100 or more.

Smaller developments distributed across communities may also help avoid concentrating disadvantage into giant segregated housing estates.

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QUALITY STANDARDS

Cheap cannot mean unsafe.

Every HOME NOW dwelling should meet applicable Victorian building, planning, fire, electrical, plumbing, insulation, ventilation and energy-efficiency requirements.

Units should include at minimum:

• secure locking doors;
• opening windows;
• heating and cooling;
• appropriate insulation;
• bathroom and shower;
• toilet;
• kitchen or kitchenette;
• refrigerator space;
• cooking facilities;
• storage;
• smoke alarms;
• sufficient electrical outlets;
• internet connectivity;
• adequate natural light;
• appropriate ventilation; and
• durable internal surfaces.

Residents should have an actual address.

An actual front door.

An actual key.

And privacy.

That last one costs very little but can mean an enormous amount to somebody who hasn't had it for months.

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GOVERNMENT BULK PURCHASING

The approximately $29,000 figure should be treated as an indicative retail starting point rather than a guaranteed government cost.

But government has something an ordinary consumer does not:

MASSIVE PURCHASING POWER.

Instead of ordering one dwelling:

order 500.

Then 1,000.

Then 5,000.

Manufacturers could bid through competitive procurement on:

• unit price;
• delivery time;
• Australian manufacturing content;
• warranty;
• durability;
• energy efficiency;
• accessibility;
• environmental performance;
• installation cost; and
• maintenance cost.

The program could potentially stimulate a larger Australian prefabricated-housing manufacturing industry at the same time.

That means housing investment also becomes:

manufacturing policy + employment policy + regional-development policy.

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THIS ISN'T COMPLETELY UNTESTED

Victoria has already used modular construction in government housing programs.

The Victorian Government has previously described modular homes as capable of being constructed quickly, transported and permanently placed on vacant land in areas of housing demand, with more than 80 social-housing modular homes already built at the time of its 2024 announcement and additional homes then under construction.

So HOME NOW would not require government to suddenly discover that prefabricated buildings exist.

The innovation is scale.

Make rapid modular housing a permanent stream of the housing system rather than an occasional response to a particular project or emergency.

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HOUSING FIRST

The program should also work from a very simple principle:

HOUSING COMES FIRST.

People should not need to demonstrate that their lives are perfectly organised before they deserve somewhere safe to sleep.

Once somebody has stable accommodation, other services become considerably easier to coordinate.

Residents could voluntarily be connected with:

• housing workers;
• Centrelink support;
• employment services;
• mental-health services;
• disability services;
• alcohol and other drug services;
• financial counselling;
• family-violence services;
• healthcare;
• education;
• legal assistance; and
• pathways into permanent housing.

The home becomes the stable base from which somebody can rebuild the rest of their life.

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A HOUSING LADDER

HOME NOW could also fill the enormous gap between emergency accommodation and permanent housing.

The system could work as:

CRISIS ACCOMMODATION

↓

HOME NOW POD / MODULAR HOME

↓

TRANSITIONAL OR SOCIAL HOUSING

↓

AFFORDABLE PRIVATE RENTAL / LONG-TERM SOCIAL HOUSING

↓

PRIVATE RENTAL OR HOME OWNERSHIP WHERE POSSIBLE

Not everybody would need to progress through every stage.

Some HOME NOW dwellings could themselves become permanent social housing.

The point is to stop people falling through the enormous hole between:

“You're homeless”

and

“Here's a permanent public-housing property.”

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FIVE-YEAR PILOT

Rather than debate the concept for another five years while people remain homeless, Victoria could commence with a measurable pilot.

PHASE ONE — 1,000 HOMES

Deploy 1,000 dwellings across metropolitan and regional Victoria.

Priority should be given to applicants already approved through the Victorian Housing Register, particularly those experiencing homelessness.

Measure:

• total delivered cost per home;
• construction and deployment time;
• occupancy;
• rental income;
• maintenance costs;
• resident satisfaction;
• housing retention;
• movement into long-term housing;
• healthcare interaction;
• emergency accommodation use;
• homelessness-service use; and
• overall government expenditure per resident.

Publish the results.

If it works:

SCALE IT.

If something doesn't work:

FIX IT.

But test the idea against evidence rather than leaving it sitting in a policy drawer.

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A REVOLVING HOME NOW FUND

Rental revenue should not simply disappear into general government revenue.

Create a dedicated:

HOME NOW HOUSING FUND

Rental income returns to the fund and can help finance:

maintenance;

site improvements;

replacement units;

and additional homes.

Over time, each generation of housing helps contribute towards financing the next.

It becomes a public housing asset base rather than endless expenditure without a corresponding asset.

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POTENTIAL OWNERSHIP PATHWAY

A later stage could even test an optional rent-to-own stream for selected affordable-housing residents.

For example, once government has recovered an agreed portion of its capital and associated costs, eligible residents could potentially purchase their modular home.

Government could then use that payment to acquire another.

So:

one government investment

could eventually become:

one privately owned affordable home + another government-owned affordable home.

That deserves separate financial modelling, but the potential is significant.

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WHY THIS APPROACH DESERVES CONSIDERATION

HOME NOW does not claim that a $29,000 pod magically solves Australia's housing crisis.

It doesn't.

We still need:

traditional public housing;

apartments;

townhouses;

family homes;

private construction;

planning reform;

rental reform;

crisis accommodation;

support services;

and long-term investment.

But there is no logical reason we should restrict ourselves to one method of building a home.

If conventional housing takes years to deliver while somebody is sleeping in a car tonight, then we need another layer of the system.

Modular housing gives government something extremely valuable:

SPEED.

And bulk procurement gives government something equally valuable:

SCALE.

Combine those with public land, affordable rent and social support and we may be able to create thousands of homes substantially faster than relying exclusively on conventional construction.

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THE SIMPLE QUESTION

If government can acquire a safe, dignified dwelling for somewhere around tens of thousands of dollars rather than hundreds of thousands of dollars...

and put that home onto appropriately serviced land...

and charge affordable rent...

and retain ownership of the asset...

and use that rent to maintain and expand the housing system...

then surely the question should not be:

“WHY WOULD WE DO THIS?”

The question should be:

“HOW QUICKLY CAN WE PROPERLY TEST IT?”

Because homelessness is extraordinarily complicated.

But one part of it isn't complicated at all.

A person without a home needs:

A HOME.

Not eventually.

Not after another strategy document.

Not after another decade of waiting lists.

HOME NOW.

Build faster.
Rent fairly.
Keep it public.
Reinvest the return.
Give people a front door.