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Opening addresses at Offsite ’26 set out a policy agenda built around strategic public procurement, finance reform, consistent standards, DfMA and stronger domestic manufacturing capability.
Offsite ’26 sets the agenda
prefabAUS has placed strategic public procurement and Australian manufacturing at the centre of its push to scale modern methods of construction, using the opening of Day 2 of Offsite ’26, held in Melbourne on 2–3 September 2026, to outline priorities for the fourth year of its ten-year industry roadmap. (main image: Delegates at prefabAUS Offsite ’26 in Melbourne on 2–3 September 2026, where industry leaders, manufacturers, designers, suppliers and government representatives gathered to discuss the future of prefabrication and modern methods of construction in Australia.)
Executive Chair Damien Crough opened the conference program by describing Offsite ’26 as a meeting point for manufacturers, builders, designers, suppliers, government, researchers and the wider construction industry.
“Offsite ’26 is ultimately about bringing our industry together,” Crough said, with the day intended to examine industrialised construction, industry barriers and the capability needed to deliver at greater scale.
Crough also pointed to practical work by the association, including the launch the previous day of prefabAUS’s Domestic Building Contract, which had been made available to members.
Lance Worrall outlines the strategic roadmap
Industry strategist Lance Worrall, co-author of prefabAUS’s Building the Future We Want: Australia’s Industry Roadmap for Smart Building, then set out the organisation’s broader policy argument.
Worrall said prefabAUS was entering year four of its ten-year strategy with a clear objective.
“PrefabAUS’ vision is for a strong onshore MMC industry with Australian manufacturing at its core. It is for a future built in Australia.”
He described the roadmap as a “living strategy”, intended to be continually assessed and adjusted rather than remain a static policy document.
Worrall linked the development of MMC to wider structural problems in construction and manufacturing, including poor productivity, housing affordability pressures, underinvestment and construction insolvencies.
He identified a group of priorities that had emerged through prefabAUS’s industry engagement: codes and certification, finance, strategic public procurement, DfMA and workforce development.
On standards, Worrall pointed to work by the Australian Building Codes Board on voluntary industry standards and certification for MMC manufacturers. On finance, he said existing models remained poorly suited to offsite construction because factory production requires larger upfront payments than conventional site-based progress payment structures.
He said the Commonwealth Bank’s new offsite finance product was a positive development, but argued the next challenge was to extend such products beyond smaller individual projects towards finance capable of supporting large-scale housing delivery.
prefabAUS has also launched a standard form contract for prefabricated housing, which Worrall said was intended to address consumer protection and factory-based progress payments.
DfMA was another recurring theme.
Worrall said feedback from a recent Queensland MMC market growth workshop indicated manufacturers were typically operating at around 50 per cent utilisation while DfMA businesses were operating at full capacity.
He argued the imbalance demonstrated the need to develop design and manufacturing capability together.
“We must grow Australia’s DFMA manufacturing capacity together, and manufacturers must be in the upfront design phase.”
Procurement and manufacturing move to the centre
Public procurement, however, emerged as the strongest theme of Worrall’s address.
He argued that governments seeking to meet housing targets needed to deliberately organise demand through procurement rather than expect manufacturing capacity to develop in response to fragmented projects.
“Our roadmap could not have been clearer on procurement’s centrality to achieving the scale needed to unlock the economic, social, and climate advantages of smart building,” he said.
The argument goes to a persistent problem for offsite manufacturers: factories require sustained throughput and investment, while project-by-project procurement can leave production capacity underused.
Worrall said strategic public procurement could create a “virtuous cycle” by structuring demand, creating economies of scale and supporting investment in manufacturing capacity.
He singled out Victoria and New South Wales as leading states in MMC policy.
In Victoria, he pointed to the Commonwealth and state investment in the Future of Housing Construction Centre of Excellence, describing the $50 million five-year initiative as the first national MMC training and applied research facility and one involving a strategic partnership with prefabAUS.
In New South Wales, Worrall highlighted the state’s pattern-book work, planning reforms and MMC innovation facility, intended to involve Australian and international manufacturers in delivering social housing at scale.
“Government will return to being a builder,” he said, describing NSW as a national leader in strategic public procurement for smart building.
The broader argument was that MMC should be treated as more than another construction subsector.
Worrall called for smart building to become a “national mission”, linking housing productivity with reindustrialisation, decarbonisation and social inclusion, backed by long-term policy rather than isolated programs.
He was equally emphatic that increased use of MMC should not translate into greater reliance on imported building systems.
“Real smart building contributing meaningfully to Australia’s challenges and opportunities can only be based on Australian manufacturing and innovative capabilities, not mass imports,” Worrall said.
He argued that digitally enabled manufacturing could support mass customisation rather than uniformity, allowing common engineering platforms to produce greater housing diversity and better responses to different Australian climates.
“We cannot innovate the solutions needed without the ability actually to make things here.”
The address concluded with prefabAUS reaffirming its priorities for 2026–27: embedding smart building within government and industry policy, and developing stronger industry ecosystems and clusters.
For prefabAUS, the message at Offsite ’26 was increasingly centred on scale. The next challenge is to build the procurement, finance, standards, skills and manufacturing environment needed to turn individual projects into a sustained Australian industry.
