Housing Innovation in Construction Fund

Hello, thank you for joining this webinar on the newly launched Housing Innovation in Construction Fund.

This is a grant program offered for the first time in 2026 by the New South Wales Government to support Modern Methods of Construction or as we call it, MMC.

I'm Kate Farr and I'm the Director of Innovation and Collaboration within the Premier's Department and I oversee the Program Delivery Team who will assess applications and provide funding to successful applicants for this program.

I'm joined by my colleague today, Natalie Heather, who is the Associate Director in the Industry and Investment Team.

Natalie's team supports the growth of the manufacturing industry here in New South Wales, as well as having a focus on innovation within the construction sector.

Natalie's team assisted in the design of this program, which is underpinned by a lot of industry research and also extensive consultation with MMC manufacturers from Australia and abroad. 

Before we launch into the agenda, I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land from which we are speaking to you from, the lands of the Gadigal.

The Gadigal of the Eora Nation are the traditional custodians on the lands encompassing Sydney's Central Business District, and we pay our respects to elders past and present.

We'll now take you through further details of the program.

This is the agenda for today and in today's webinar, we'll provide you with some context on where this programme fits in within the New South Wales Government's wider housing agenda, as well as a high level summary of how the programme works, eligibility requirements, what you can use the funding for and how the grant process is managed.

I'll now pass over to Natalie to introduce the program objective and the policy context.

Thanks for that introduction, Kate. As we all know, housing is a key priority for the New South Wales Government, with aggressive delivery targets in place to be delivered by the end of the decade.

Modern methods of construction is a lever that New South Wales Government has identified to expedite this housing delivery.

Government has put in place a suite of mechanisms, to support the MMC industry establish and expand in New South Wales, particularly in relation to the delivery of mid and high-rise housing.

This grant program is part of that suite of projects.

Natalie, could you just maybe tell the people who have dialled in to this webinar, could you clarify for them what the New South Wales Government means when we talk specifically about MMC?

Oh, that's a great question, Kate. 

It's often termed industrialised construction where the majority of the construction actually occurs in a controlled manufacturing environment as opposed to being constructed in situ or on the site. 

New South Wales Government is very agnostic as to the technology deployed in terms of MMC, which might include volumetric and modular, kit of parts, panellised solutions, or even 3D printing.

Thanks, Natalie. 

So I just wanted to use this opportunity to talk a little bit about what is the Housing Innovation and Construction Grant Program.

So this program and the genesis of it has been designed to help business validate their compliance of their Class 2 offering.

So what we're talking about is anything that is beyond a Class 1 against New South Wales and Australian regulations. 

In essence, an engineering feasibility to enable you to look at market entry strategies for your Class 2 design. 

We want you and engage qualified external experts who have the appropriate accreditation to support you undertaking this compliance review to ensure you have a client compliant product appropriate for New South Wales construction environment. 

We recognise that this is a costly exercise and in many instances for some of our businesses, it's an at risk cost as you're exploring your market entry strategy into New South Wales. Which is why government is supporting businesses in this manner.

I'll now sort of talk through some of the more specifics about the eligibility.

So there's two facets to this, which includes whether your business meets the eligibility requirements in terms of your company's operations, and also we have some criteria which relate to the project itself.

So to start with, this is the main streams for the eligible businesses. 

So under the program, there are these three categories.

The first is existing domestic MMC providers or businesses seeking to expand into Class 2 or beyond solutions in New South Wales. 

Secondly, we have the program open also to new market entrants from overseas with existing MMC capabilities in their other jurisdictions, who are exploring New South Wales markets for MMC and thirdly, we are also open to existing domestic manufacturers or construction businesses who are seeking to diversify into MMC and who might have the appropriate transferrable capabilities.

So secondly, I guess in terms of the eligibility related to whether your business is eligible, there are some further requirements. 

Additionally, to receive a grant, each business must meet the following requirements.

This includes being a registered corporation in Australia or another jurisdiction. 

You must have a minimum annual turnover of 2.5 million for each of the last three financial years, which also speaks to the requirement that you must have been in operation for a minimum of three years to apply.

International businesses must also register with ASIC and open a bank account before any award of a grant.

Kate, that's a good question to ask you. Do international businesses need to register an Australian company and have an Australian bank account to apply?

No, Natalie, thank you for that question. You only need to do this if your application is successful. 

This step is necessary to execute a funding agreement with the New South Wales Government and to receive your funding. 

And how would a business register an Australian company?

So you can register a company through the website of the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, or rather ASIC as we call it, which is the Australian corporate regulator. 

Their e-mail, or sorry, their website is asic.gov.au, which we can share with you on the website. We recommend you go to the ASIC website to research how you set up an Australian company and to be aware of your obligations.

Thanks for that, Kate.

So next, we're going to skip to the component of project eligibility and Natalie, would you like to sort of take us through some of the detail here?

Yeah, absolutely, with pleasure. As I mentioned earlier, you know, this project is all about an engineering feasibility study or a review with the explicit objective of validating that your Class 2 design is compliant to Australian and New South Wales regulations.

And these regulations include, of course, the National Construction Code, but also specific New South Wales regulations.

So the Apartment Design Guide, the Home Building Act, the Design and Building Practitioners Act, as well as work health and safety requirements, amongst others. 

The assessment must be done by an Australian professional, accredited by Engineers Australia or a specialist engineering association and also registered under the New South Wales Design and Building Practitioners Scheme.

Should you undertake a compliance review and identify areas of non-compliance when you're going through this process, you may also apply again to undertake engineering solutions or test some of your design modifications to ensure that it's going to meet those accreditation requirements.

Natalie, I'm sure some are wanting to just understand a bit further about what the grant funding can specifically be used for. Could you just clarify that for us too?

Oh, absolutely. I really recommend though that applicants look at the Program Guidelines where there's an exhaustive suite of allowed expenditure. 

But to summarise, you can use the funding for the cost of your external engineering consultant, but also other external and internal costs that are directly related to the agreed activities in your Feasibility Study and this can include things such as some of the testing that you might need to undertake. 

You can also claim up to 25% of project costs on internal wages, recognising that businesses need to undertake extensive project management to take on an engineering feasibility study of this nature, so we're very mindful of this from an applicant's perspective.

Thanks, Natalie.

Okay, this slide just quite clearly, I guess, demonstrates the cadence of payments if you are successful in meeting the eligibility requirements, which we've just taken you through in terms of your business eligibility and your project eligibility.

If you receive these checks, we will then look to set up a funding agreement with you. 

And if you're eligible, you'll receive your first payment instalment on execution of a funding agreement with us, with the New South Wales Government, which is here at the Premier's Department, and you'll receive your second instalment payment upon completion of your feasibility study or review. 

Now, this must be between 2 to 12 months after the award of the first instalment, which we expect is quite a usual period for these feasibilities to take.

Can I just ask you a couple of questions on that one, Kate? How would an applicant submit their second milestone payment?

Absolutely. So we use a system called SmartyGrants and all documents from the application stage through to the completion, submission and completion of your report are submitted through the Smarty Grants platform portal. 

You'll be directed to this system if you click apply here on the Housing Innovation and Construction webpage.

Thanks for that. 

And I'm sure all of our listeners are concerned about their own intellectual property, particularly if they're required to provide a copy of their completed feasibility study. How is the New South Wales Government managing that aspect?

Of course, the terms of our standard funding agreement includes provision for each business to retain ownership of their IP.

The New South Wales Government treats all materials as commercial in confidence, so you can be assured of that. 

Thank you. And what about proving expenditure?

How do I, as an applicant, prove that we've expended, say we've got a program of works for $200,000, how do we prove that we've expended that?

So that's another great question and you'll need to submit invoices and receipts related to those costs for all supply costs through SmartyGrants.

So we'll receive those as evidence and that will document and be considered by my team which will assess and then provide you with that grant funding.

Thanks for that, Kate. 

So this is a little summary about how to go about applying and also you'll see there our website link and a QR code which you may wish to scan now to take you directly through that portal. 

As mentioned, international businesses will need to demonstrate business registration outside of Australia as well as provide details of their company officer details.

All applicants, including both domestic and international, will need to provide evidence of their MMC capabilities, their financial statements for the last three years, and a quote from an external Australian accredited engineering professional to undertake the scope of works.

Just a couple of questions on that front. Can you just describe what applicants will need to provide in their portfolio of existing works?

So in terms of your existing works, the portfolio should show that your business has the capability required under one of the defined MMC capable businesses, which is, I guess, explicitly called out within our guidelines. 

We are looking for proof of completed and or ongoing work that shows your business can deliver MMC solutions.

For example, a showcase of works on your website or photographs of completed or ongoing projects. 

Thanks for that. And what about financial statements?

What financial statements do I need to provide to demonstrate my ability to meet that two and a half million dollar threshold?

So we'll ask you to provide your business's audited financial statements for the last three completed financial years, including profit and loss statements showing your annual turnover.

They'll need to be prepared by a registered accountant.

Yep, thanks very much for that, Kate. I'm sure applicants are very pleased to hear how simple this process is.

Okay, so we're coming to the end of the webinar.

So this is some further details about contacting us and if you've got questions or queries that isn't clear on the website, please reach out to us here at the general.inquiries at investment.nsw.gov.

This will take you directly to our project team who will be monitoring this inbox daily, and we'll try and respond to you within 48 hours.

And that wraps up the webinar. Thank you for listening and we look forward to receiving your application for the newly launched HIC program shortly.