The greater challenge with which Australia is confronted: building 1.2 million climate resolient houses

Australia tries to build 1.2 million new houses in five years. And although that goal is ambitious enough, leaders of the construction sector also emphasize that these houses cannot be like those from the past.

At the Future Homes Forum of the Housing Industry Association (HIA) 2025 in Sydney at the end of August, the need for innovation in home structure was the undercurrent – if not the center – of every discussion.

Not only because the nation has to build houses much faster than it is now, but because if recent events have taught us something, it is that serious weather conditions are the way of the future.

The houses of Australia must be able to take on this challenge and protect residents. Ideally, they must also contribute to stopping the approaching march of climate change.

The challenge is that the new materials, processes and technologies involved in the construction of future houses are invariably the more expensive option and centrally in the ability of the nation to build new houses, the need to do them affordable, so that they are accessible to everyday Australians.

Balancing affordability with resilience is no easy task in the Australian home building. The task can almost seem too big to tackle. But during the daily discussion it arose that there are concrete actions that can now take governments, companies and consumers.

Connect the problems

Simon Croft, the Chief Executive of the industry and the policy of HIA, has already presented the media for the media five times this year on ‘floods, forest fires, earthquakes, hail showers and heat waves’, as he told the public.

When it comes to the problems that the nation is confronted, climate change is consistent with the highest worries.

In the last elections, with the nation in the midst of a housing crisis, it was no surprise that homes also rank one of the top priorities among the voters.

Simon Croft, Chief Executive of the Industry and the Policy, speaks at the Future Homes Forum 2025. Image: Hia

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What Mr Croft knows well is that climate change and housing are in fact not separate issues, but very closely related.

“We must not only be able to build affordable houses, but we also have to build safe houses,” said Mr. Croft.

“So this is the challenge, the push and the migration that we have for us as a nation and as society: how do we design safe houses? How do we make them affordable? How do we actually build these houses on the ground at the same time?”

It is not a small challenge. And in its advocacy, HIA is particularly aimed at tackling the impost of taxes that considerably increase the costs of new builds for buyers – money that HIA would rather lead to consumers to the quality of the house.

The body was also invested heavily in pleading for a break in the National Construction Code, to give industry time to adapt to its changes.

Federal investments in innovation and technology can also help the sector to speed up the output.

But it is not all in the hands of the government. Through education, HIA believes that builders and consumers can have an impact on the houses that are being built throughout the country.

Inform Australians about their home building options

Landscape architect and old TV gastheer Jamie Durie acted as MC for the event and also gave the public a look at his impressive Home Build project, which tried to use sustainable, environmentally friendly functions for every turn.

It was not the affordable build that many in the audience would work with their customers, but as Mr Durie explained, he wanted to “build the Ferrari of Eco-Building” to show what was possible in Australian houses.

With the construction process filmed and broadcast on the Seven Network as a four-part series called Growing Home with Jamie Durie, the TV presenter said that he hoped that Australian viewers may have been inspired by the project and elements in the program in their own Build or renovation project.

In his seven-storey Kliff-Side House, which is now complete with a view of the Waterkant in Avalon, Mr Durie was able to show concepts such as passive architecture, water-saving irrigation systems, geothermal home delivery, air purification and vertical gardening.

Products such as LOW-VOC paints, recycled plastic carpets, selectively harvested wood, carbon-arm concrete and recycled building materials are just a few of the environmentally friendly ways in which he brought this project to life.

Durie started such an innovative project with so many new components, “it was pretty challenging. It certainly cost a lot of myself and our family, but I felt that this was a very, very important project to share with Australia”.

Jamie Durie on Hia’s 2025 Future Homes Forum. Image: HIA

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Helping Australian houses evolve

Whether it concerns events such as HIA forum, shows such as Mr Durie or other methods for public information, HIA director Jocelyn Martin emphasized the need for education to help the Australian consumer to know their options.

As their circumstances change, this training will inform Australians about what they do with their homes, and help the homeowners of the nation to develop their property to those who keep up with time – and respond to the time.

“I would like to think that there would be a time when everyone had a vision of a future house, even if it seemed out of reach, and perhaps even a bit crazy. And that our rules and our norms and our approach to innovation are refined enough to inspire people to achieve that trip in their way,” she said.

Mrs. Martin shared her own home construction journey as something of an example for how Australians could come up with the evolution of their houses.

“I moved to my current house in 2000. It was a brand new house with two bedrooms,” she explained.

And although the off-site construction could be considered modern, she shared that the structure was really quite rudimentary.

“Our new house was freezing. There were gaps everywhere, which after just a short period we shared with a series of mice and birds. But it was ours. It was what we could pay at the time.”

Mrs. Martin said that changes had to be made with a growing family, and she was in a happy position to make some of those changes with growing finances.

“Now this same house has four bedrooms, fully double glazed windows, and we have changed all our lighting. All holes have been sealed, the mice and birds have moved. We have completely reduced our electricity accounts by Zonne -Energy, and we have a large water tank and we have covered our gutters as a result of our gutlot, covered.

There are even more changes that Mrs. Martin said her family is considering, but “the point is that these are changes that can happen gradually, during a life.”

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