Kwinana to welcome hundreds of Lego-inspired quick-build homes to help ease housing crisis

A game-changing WA building technology that can build homes in just 10 days will soon make its way to Kwinana. Wellard, Anketell and Wandi will be among the first suburbs in a 400 quick-build home roll-out, which uses 13 pieces of patented technology that lock together like a giant Lego set. It comes after Perth company NXT TEC signed its first licence agreement with Common Sense Property and Finance last month to use the technology in an affordable housing range called NXT Residential. According to NXT TEC, the total time from contract to moving in is six months, including time for building approvals and finance, which is well below the two to three-year build times in the current market. While the City of Kwinana didn’t confirm when the roll-out would start, chief executive Wayne Jack said the city welcomed the contemporary technology. “Innovations such as these provide a number of benefits to the local community, as traditional bricklaying methods can be disruptive to early residents in these residential areas,” Mr Jack said. “These modern methods help to reduce the disruption by reducing the overall building time frames and thus impact on any neighbouring residents.” The unique technology was invented by Perth builder and architect Mataki O’Goshi Lim. He left the industry more than a decade ago after becoming frustrated with inefficiency, disjointed trade schedules and tradie no-shows. NXT TEC director Natasha Di Ciano said the company was eager to help address WA’s chronic housing shortage and tight rental market. “We are committed to delivering high quality, accessible and fast housing solutions to homebuyers,” she said. Ms Di Ciano said the first range of homes would start at $300,000 for a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house. Neighbouring areas are also jumping on the innovative trend, with a spokesperson for the Shire of Murray confirming an interim community centre in Ravenswood was being built in a similar manner through Timberbuilt Australia while the contractor builds the new Ravenswood community centre. “It is an innovative technique where the individual elements of the structure are designed offsite, cut and built in wood offsite, and then popped together like Lego on site,” the spokesperson said. “It’s cost-effective and innovative and means buildings can be built quicker.”