Please turn your device to portrait.
Keystart’s guarantee will help apartment and townhouse projects secure finance, following earlier comments from its chief executive linking the lender’s expanded programs to prefab and panelised construction.
Western Australia has opened applications for its $250 million Pre-sale Guarantee, offering a potential pathway for developers using offsite construction to overcome a financial barrier before building can begin. (main image: Render of a 116-apartment modular development in Karratha, Western Australia. AluHouse will supply the aluminium exterior wall system for the four three-storey buildings, with delivery scheduled to commence in September 2026. Image: AluHouse.)
Delivered through state-backed lender Keystart, the scheme is expected to support up to 1,200 apartments and townhouses by helping developments meet lenders’ pre-sale requirements.
In an interview with Built Offsite published in May 2026, Keystart chief executive Mark Tomasz linked the Pre-sale Guarantee, Build to Rent Kickstart Fund and First Home Buyer Commercial Finance Facility to opportunities for industrialised construction.
“We expect those programs will really help support the growth of the prefab and panelised construction sectors here in WA,” Tomasz said.
He also linked future development activity to investment in manufacturing capacity.
“I believe that with the investment the WA Government is making in precast and advanced manufacturing facilities, a lot of what we will finance in terms of development will use that construction methodology,” he said.
Helping projects reach construction
Under the guarantee, Keystart will commit to purchasing up to 50 per cent of unsold homes in a development upon completion. This helps developers satisfy banks’ requirements to secure sufficient sales before construction funding becomes available.
If the homes sell during construction, the guarantee lapses. If called upon completion, Keystart purchases the homes at a discount to market value.
Regional projects can receive guarantees covering up to 60 per cent of homes, with lower purchase discounts and minimum dwelling requirements. Participating developments must also offer a portion of homes below Keystart’s headline property price limit.
Treasurer Rita Saffioti said: “We know high pre-sale requirements can hold up or even prevent apartment and townhouse projects from going ahead.”
For offsite manufacturers, the potential benefit is a stronger pipeline of developments able to secure finance and commit to production.
The guarantee addresses a different financing constraint from Keystart’s existing modular home loan, which supports individual buyers through staged factory payments and funding for land, transport and installation.
It does not itself establish how developers will fund offsite manufacturing before components reach the site. Those arrangements remain a separate consideration.
However, its opening puts another element of Keystart’s broader housing finance program into operation, with Tomasz’s earlier comments pointing to opportunities for offsite suppliers.
Find Keystart’s $250 million Pre-sale Guarantee scheme HERE
