Local timber solution to ease housing crisis in Australia

The rise of increasingly sought after, timber framed lifestyle dwellings is helping to free up housing stock across Australia.  In the Fraser Coast, home to Hyne Timber – one of Australia’s oldest and largest softwood manufacturers, their framing is currently being used for almost 800 new lifestyle dwellings being built by Brighton Homes alone.

These are located across three village developments on behalf of Brighton Homes clients, Ingenia, Stockwell Group and Green Fort Capital. Typically, over 50’s homeowners sell their home to move into a ‘right size’ lifestyle village without a mortgage – thereby freeing up housing stock for next generations.

According to the 2021 ABS Census, 250,000 Australians reside in retirement communities which is a 23% increase from the 2016 data. This number is expected to exponentially grow with our aging population and 458 operators of retirement communities across the country.

According to the Retirement Living Council ‘Better Housing for Better Health’ report, the current pipeline of retirement communities will reduce the housing shortage by 18%. Further growth of this pipeline to meet the ongoing demand, could further reduce Australia’s housing shortage by 67% by 2030. (Source)

Brighton Homes Business Development Manager, Patrick Cumner, said their own pipeline for retirement villages will deliver almost 12,000 dwellings across Queensland in the next few years.

“Lifestyle villages have been hugely popular across America for many years and this model is taking off here in Australia. These centrally located villages can have hundreds of low maintenance dwellings along with the popular, shared facilities, services and social programs which make these communities so desirable for healthy and active retirees.

James Hyne, Stakeholder Engagement Manager for the Hyne Group said this is a great step in the right direction for housing availability, “With the housing and land availability challenges here in Australia, this type of lifestyle model is contributing positively to our communities in many ways.

“Not only are these lifestyle villages in hot demand, but they’re also being largely built using timber for a range of benefits including the ability to relocate them, quieter buildings, locally grown, locally manufactured and locally processed into frames and trusses at companies such as Brett’s Timber and Hardware and CQ Building Supplies.

“From a pine seedling to a new home, thousands of local jobs make up these dwellings, further supporting our regional economy.”

With an estimated 3,500m3 of timber to be used for the three Hervey Bay lifestyle villages, this volume of timber will sequester approximately 2,500 tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere which is the equivalent to 1,270 cars off the road for a year. This volume of structural graded, softwood plantation pine will have regrown across the Australian softwood plantation estate in just 10 hours. Construction doesn’t get more renewable than that!

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Source & image credit: Hyne Timber