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Australian group Syncorana and Bosnia and Herzegovina-based prefab manufacturer Steco Centar have formed a joint venture proposing an advanced Australian manufacturing facility capable of producing up to 3,000 prefabricated homes a year.
The partners have signed an agreement establishing Steco (Australia) Pty Ltd, with plans for an approximately $150 million manufacturing operation using European prefabrication technology adapted to Australian standards.
The proposed facility would target residential housing, Indigenous affordable and social housing, aged care, early childhood education, workforce accommodation and commercial development.
A training facility is also proposed alongside manufacturing, using Syncorana’s Living Planit/Dreamtime Institute of Training and Management to provide training in prefabricated construction, advanced manufacturing, assembly and installation.
Syncorana chief executive and managing director Carlton Taya said the venture was intended to combine international manufacturing capability with an Australian housing and workforce strategy.
“Through this joint venture we intend to establish advanced manufacturing capability that can deliver high-quality prefabricated housing faster, more efficiently and at scale,” Taya said.
Australian partner expands into housing and manufacturing
Syncorana Corporation Limited is an Australian services and Indigenous partnering business whose activities span education and training, workforce participation, housing, technology and community initiatives.
The company’s background is not in construction manufacturing. Founder and managing director Carlton Taya has spent much of his career in information and communications technology, including eight years as managing director of Avaya South Pacific, before establishing businesses focused on digital education and training.
Syncorana has more recently identified affordable and prefabricated housing as a major growth area, combining housing delivery with workforce training and Indigenous economic participation.
Its current capital-raising material describes a proposed prefabricated Indigenous housing initiative in Western Sydney and refers to plans for an advanced manufacturing facility and adjacent training campus involving Steco Centar. The JV announcement itself, however, does not confirm a factory location.
Steco brings established prefab manufacturing
Steco Centar brings the manufacturing component to the partnership.
Based in Bijeljina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the company has more than 20 years’ experience manufacturing timber prefabricated houses and multi-storey buildings for domestic and international markets.
Steco operates a manufacturing facility of more than 12,000 square metres, with equipment for producing the principal elements used in its prefabricated building systems. The company states current design, manufacturing and installation capacity of approximately 200 square metres of building area per day.
Despite the scale of the Australian proposal, significant details remain unresolved. Neither party has announced a confirmed site, land agreement, development approvals, financing structure, construction timetable or government funding.
For now, the $150 million facility remains a proposed investment rather than a factory under construction.
