Emerging home types in Australia: modular, prefab, duplexes and the changing dwelling mix

Homes other than separate houses made up 27.7% of occupied private dwellings in 2021, up from 24.7% two decades earlier. That shift includes several dwelling types, but official data does not measure each one in the same way.

The types covered here are modular and prefab houses, transportable homes, duplexes and granny flats. They share one trait: they are often counted inside broader dwelling categories rather than as standalone categories.

• Modular, prefab and transportable houses are counted as separate houses, because dwelling structure is classified by form, not construction method.
• Duplexes sit inside the semi-detached and townhouse group, the fastest-growing category.
• Granny flats gained their own class only in 2021, so there is no long-run national count.

Separate houses fell 3.0 percentage points to 72.3% of occupied private dwellings between 2001 and 2021, while semi-detached homes and townhouses grew fastest, from 8.9% to 12.6%. Apartments increased slightly, up 1.1 percentage points to 14.2%.

The change in Australia's housing mix over the past two decades came mostly from medium-density forms, including townhouses, terraces and duplexes, rather than a large increase in apartments.

Unlike duplexes, townhouses and apartments, modular and prefab homes are mainly a construction method rather than a separate dwelling structure. That makes them harder to track in official housing data.

Prefabrication is estimated at about 5% of Australian construction output. The industry body prefabAUS separately projects that 10% of Australian homes could be prefabricated by 2030. The two figures are not directly comparable; the first estimates prefab's current share of all construction output, while the second is a forward-looking industry projection for residential housing only, so they are best read as separate indicators rather than two points on a single scale.

No official count of modular or prefab homes exists. The classification recognises these dwelling types but does not report them as a separate national series, and neither figure is an official ABS statistic.

Prefab and modular housing have been positioned by the federal government as one possible way to support faster housing delivery. The policy focus is on manufacturing capacity and building approvals processes, but official data does not yet show how many completed homes prefab methods are adding.

The federal government committed $54 million to prefab and modular manufacturing in March 2025, part of a national target of 1.2 million new homes by June 2029. The government says prefab homes can be built up to 50% faster than traditional construction.

The funding and the speed claim are commitments and government statements, rather than measured outcomes. No projection has been published for how many homes prefab methods are expected to add, and the data does not yet record prefab's contribution to delivery.