Housing affordability is a very real concern for many Australians. And that means it’s also a concern for everyone involved in the construction and property industry, including builders, developers, manufacturers, peak bodies, governments and researchers.

What we know is that housing affordability is complex. In a recent article in The Conversation, Building 4.0 CRC CEO Professor Mathew Aitchison unpacks some of the factors affecting housing affordability, and particularly the role of innovation in addressing them:

1. Currently, industry lacks the capacity to build as many dwellings as the market needs.
2. We need to improve productivity in all aspects of the building chain: development, design, construction, operation and end of life.
3. We need new business and ownership models.
4. Australian houses need more flexibility and diversity.
5. We need new building systems and supply chains that deliver faster, cheaper and higher-quality buildings.
6. We need to make houses more durable and easy to maintain.
7. We need to explore ways to reuse and recycle buildings and building materials.

You can read Mathew’s article here.

Mathew also discussed these issues on ABC Radio and ABC News 24.