The Bigger Challenge Facing Australia: Building 1.2m Climate-Resilient Homes

Australia is trying to build 1.2 million new homes in five years. And while that goal is ambitious enough, construction industry leaders are also stressing that these homes can’t be like the ones of the past.  

At the Housing Industry Association’s (HIA) 2025 Future Homes Forum held in Sydney at the end of August, the need for innovation in homebuilding was the undercurrent – if not the centre – of every discussion. 

Not just because the nation needs to be building homes much faster than it is currently, but because if recent events have taught us anything, it’s that severe weather events are the way of the future.

Australia’s homes need to be able to meet this challenge and protect residents. Ideally, they also need to contribute to stopping the impending march of climate change.

The challenge is that the new materials, processes and technologies involved in the construction of future-ready homes are invariably the more expensive option, and central to the nation’s ability to build new homes is the need to do them affordably, so that they are accessible to everyday Australians. 

Balancing affordability with resilience is no mean feat in Australian home building. The task can almost seem too large to tackle. But throughout the day-long discussion, what emerged is that there are concrete actions that governments, businesses and consumers can take right now.

Connecting the issues 

Simon Croft, HIA’s chief executive of industry and policy, has already fronted the media five times this year talking about “floods, bushfires, earthquakes, hailstorms and heat waves,” as he told the audience. 

When it comes to the issues facing the nation, climate change ranks consistently among the top concerns. 

In the last election, with the nation in the midst of a housing crisis, it was no surprise to see that housing also ranks as one of the top priorities among voters.  

Simon Croft, HIA’s chief executive of industry and policy, speaking at the 2025 Future Homes Forum. 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 not only need to be able to build affordable homes, but we need to build safe homes,” Mr Croft said. 

“So this is the challenge, the push and pull that we’ve got in front of us as a nation and as society: how do we design safe homes? How do we make them affordable? How do we actually build faster at the same time to get these homes on the ground?” 

It’s no small challenge. And in its advocacy work, HIA is particularly focused on addressing the impost of taxes that significantly increase the cost of new builds for buyers – money HIA would prefer consumers divert into the quality of the home. 

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

Federal investment in innovation and technology, too, could help the sector speed up output.  

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

Informing Australians about their home building options 

Acting as MC for the event, landscape architect and long-time TV host Jamie Durie also gave the audience a look into his impressive home build project, which attempted to use sustainable, eco-friendly features at every turn. 

It was not the affordable build that many in the audience would be working on with their clients, but as Mr Durie explained, he “wanted to build the Ferrari of eco-building” to show what was possible in Australian homes. 

With the construction process filmed and aired on the Seven Network as a four-part series called Growing Home with Jamie Durie, the TV presenter said he hoped that Australian viewers might be inspired by the project, and incorporate elements shown in the program into their own build or renovation project. 

In his seven-storey cliff-side home, which is now complete overlooking the waterfront in Avalon, Mr Durie was able to show off concepts like passive architecture, water-saving irrigation systems, geothermal home energy, air purification, and vertical gardening. 

Products like low-VOC paints, recycled plastic carpets, selective harvested timber, low-carbon concrete, and repurposed building materials are just some of the eco-friendly ways he brought this project to life.  
 
Embarking on such an innovative project with so many new components, Mr Durie admitted, “It was pretty challenging. It certainly took a lot out of myself and our family, but I felt that this was a very, very important project to share with Australia”. 

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

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Helping Australian homes evolve 

Whether it’s through events like HIA’s forum, shows like Mr Durie’s or other methods of public information, HIA managing director Jocelyn Martin stressed the need for education to help Australian consumer know their options. 

As their circumstances change, this education will inform Australians’ choices about what they do with their homes, and help the nation’s homeowners evolve their properties into ones which are keeping up with – and responding to – the times. 

“I would like to think there’d be a time when everyone had a vision of a future home, even if it seemed out of reach for them right now, and maybe even a little crazy.
And that our regulations and our standards and our approach to innovation is sophisticated enough to inspire people to reach that journey in their way,” she said. 

Ms Martin shared her own home building journey as something of an example for how Australians could think of the evolution of their homes.  
 
“I moved into my current home in 2000. It was a brand new, two bedroom kit home,” she explained. 

And while the off-site construction could be thought of as modern, she shared that the structure was really quite rudimentary. 

“Our new home was freezing. There were gaps everywhere, which after only a short period of time we shared with a range of mice and birds. But it was ours. It was what we could afford at that time.” 

Ms Martin said that with a growing family, changes needed to be made, and she was in a fortunate position to be able to make some of those changes with growing finances as well. 

“Now, this same home has four bedrooms, fully double glazed windows, and we have changed all our lighting. All the gaps are sealed, the mice and birds have moved out. We have completely reduced our power bills through solar, and we have a large water tank and we have covered our gutters to make sure we collect as much water as possible from our now substantially changed roof line,” she said. 

There are yet more changes that Ms Martin said her family is considering, but “the point is that these are changes that can happen gradually, over a lifetime”. 

Are you interested in learning more about Australian home building? Check out our dedicated New Homes section.