Aussies are taking up the challenge to help boost the number of much-needed homes throughout Australia’s vast and diverse regional areas, according to experts at the Regions Rising Summit held this week.

Building new homes at scale isn’t as easy in Australia’s rural areas — land may be cheaper but there aren't always as many builders or resources as in the cities.  

Still, many of these areas are vulnerable to sudden jolts in housing demand from infrastructure developments, major resource projects, tourism booms and more.  

While towns and rural areas welcome new jobs, people and investment, they often face pressure to house the new arrivals and keep up their levels of services. 

Available rental housing is sparse across rural locations, with Australia’s regional rental vacancy rate sitting at just 1.28% in July, according to PropTrack. That’s 42% lower than before the pandemic.  

But groups and businesses are making it their mission to address the regional housing challenge and shared their ideas with realestate.com.au on the sidelines of the Regional Australia Institute’s Regions Rising Summit in Canberra on Wednesday. 

Take Nestd Villages —  a social enterprise and property developer that works with local governments and private landowners to construct social, affordable and key-worker housing in regional areas.  

The organisation, which supports youth homelessness charity Kids Under Cover, works on mixed-use and mixed-tenure developments ranging from 200 to 400 homes in rural locations. 

Australia’s regional rental vacancy rate sat at just 1.28% in July. Picture: Getty

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Nestd executive director Greg Muller said the enterprise's secret was to focus on ways to fast-track planning, design and construction.  

“When we’re working on projects, we’re often working very closely with local councils because they’re closest to their municipality and their residents,” Mr Muller said.  

“Councils need to be appropriately open to be able to progress planning much faster than they historically have, and we’re seeing elements of that, but they need to facilitate that more.” 

Modular housing is also being used to help towns and regional areas provide temporary homes for workers on major construction projects.  

Passive Place managing director Nick Lane said there was an opportunity to use modular housing in better ways to bring about diversified housing options quickly and within the existing planning systems.

Modular homes are getting more and more popular in Australia's regional areas. Picture: Erinna Giblin

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He said transportable, architecturally designed modular homes could be delivered to regional areas where major projects were taking place and then be rented out for the project's duration. 

The accommodation could then be transported away once the project was completed and reused for other works, Mr Lane said.  

“This is scalable, so every infrastructure project that needs extra workforce accommodation could pick up this housing and share it with them,” he said.  

“So there are multiple opportunities with that kind of scale.”  

While some are looking at how to deliver homes more efficiently, others are looking at how to get land ready to build homes on.  

Housing infrastructure such as water, electricity and sewage connections are a major cost that can slow down the delivery of new homes, especially in regional areas.  

“Getting the land ready for houses to be built on is a huge barrier in many local councils in regional areas,” Regional Australia Institute (RAI) chief executive Liz Ritchie said.  

“They simply can’t afford to do it.”  

That’s why the federal government has earmarked $500 million for state, territory and local governments to boost housing-related infrastructure, as well as a further $1 billion just for the state and territory governments for similar works.  

The efforts to boost regional housing come after a turbulent few years for many rural locations. 

The Sunshine Coast in Queensland welcomed the greatest share of city-movers in the March 2024 quarter. Picture: Getty

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Many city-dwellers flocked to regional areas during the peak of the pandemic, driving up home prices and rents in towns across the country.  

The number of people making a tree- and sea-change has slowed down since the peak in 2022.

However, there were still 24% more people moving from capital cities to the regions compared to the other direction during the March 2024 quarter, according to the RAI-Commonwealth Bank Regional Movers Index. 

“This sustained trend provides tangible evidence regarding the importance of investing in and supporting the regions, to ensure communities have the services, skills, and infrastructure they need for their growing populations,” Ms Ritchie said.