Have We Completely Lost the Plot Bringing Houses in by Boat

As explained by David Dawn, Licensed Conveyancer at Victorian Property Settlements, every few months there is some new gimmick rolled out by industry or government that is supposed to “fix” housing. And every time we all end up asking the same question. Oh my God. What next.

We already have enough trouble getting a standard build finished to a decent standard. Anyone who has bought a new townhouse in the last ten years knows this. Crooked walls. Tiles that pop when you walk on them. Paintwork that looks like it was done on a lunch break. And now we have houses being floated into Melbourne on boats like oversized IKEA flat packs. Somewhere along the way someone in Spring Street has decided that speed is now the gold standard, not quality.

The idea seems simple. Build the house in another country, slide it onto a ship, assemble it in Melbourne, and congratulations, we have “solved” affordability. Except we have not. Because buyers still need quality. And quality is not something you can bolt together with a forklift in a paddock next to a container ship.

The real problem for new purchasers is the future buyer. You might be excited today, standing inside your shiny new prefabricated wonder, believing you have outsmarted the market. But at some point you will sell. We all do. And that is when all of this matters. Your profit is not made on the day you buy. It is made on the day you sell. And if you cannot clearly identify who is going to buy your property from you because the build quality is questionable and the construction story sounds like a punchline in a pub joke, then you have a real issue.

Victorians are being asked to risk their financial future so government can make another media grab about “innovation”. The same logic that gave us fast-tracked planning approvals, giant apartment blocks with paper thin walls, and buildings wrapped in flammable cladding. Now it is imported houses. Apparently shipping entire homes across oceans is the new solution.

Speed is not the point. Housing is not a race. It is the biggest financial decision a Victorian will ever make. If the build quality is not there, then the long term value simply is not there either. And no amount of government cheerleading will change that.

At some stage someone has to say it. The Victorian Government has lost the plot on this one. Allowing prebuilt overseas housing to be shipped in without a long term plan for quality, resale value, durability, or consumer protection is nonsense. There is no shortcut to craftsmanship. There is no shortcut to structural integrity. And there is absolutely no shortcut to a buyer willing to trust a product when the story begins with “it arrived on a boat last Tuesday.”

New buyers need to be warned. If the build looks rushed, if it feels like it was slapped together in two months because a developer wanted to get to market quicker, and if the government is more excited about headlines than standards, then stop and think. Who will buy this from me in ten years time. Because if you cannot answer that, then the profit you imagine today may never appear.

For now, let us hope this does not become the new normal. But given the track record, nothing would surprise any of us anymore.

Victorian Property Settlements
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www.victorianpropertysettlements.com.au