Author Ayesha Rehman.
Elsewhere Pods founder and CEO Matt Decarne presented at the Australia China Business Council's Victoria Property Forum in Melbourne on 17 July.
The ACBC is Australia's premier bilateral business organisation, connecting more than 5modular00 member organisations across the Australia-China economic relationship. Its Victoria Property Forum brought together developers, investors and industry leaders to talk about where property is heading, and this year, tiny homes were on the agenda.
Matt was invited to present Elsewhere Pods as a case study in how modular construction is answering some of the hardest questions in Australian housing.
A Case Study in Prefab Tiny homes
The presentation followed the arc of the business itself. It opened with the state of the housing crisis, worked through the solutions on the table, and landed on why the tiny home and modular industry is the one gaining real ground.
For Matt, the case for pods has never been only about supply numbers.
"It's the intersection between getting people back to nature and creating a solution to the affordable housing situation," he told the room.
That framing matters. Modular is often discussed purely as a volume play, more homes built faster. Our view is that speed only counts if the homes are ones people actually want to live in: design-led, connected to the landscape, and built to last.
From Trade Policy to Tiny Homes
Matt's route to founding Elsewhere Pods made him an unusual fit for a bilateral business forum, in the best way.
Before pods, he was a consultant specialising in international trade law and economics, advising government and large manufacturers on trade policy. Then floods displaced his family in Byron Bay, and the question of how Australia builds became personal. You can read that story in From Floods to Foundations.
So when the conversation at the forum turned to cross-border collaboration, supply chains and manufacturing precision, it was familiar territory.
What Cross-Border Collaboration Means for Housing
The forum's central theme was collaboration across borders, and what it can unlock for Australian property.
For modular construction, the connection is direct. Precision manufacturing, quality materials and efficient logistics are what make a pod possible, and they depend on strong international partnerships. It is one of the reasons we have been expanding globally since 2025.
It is also where our build system earns its place in the conversation.
"Our flat-pack solution allows us to get our pods out into the bush, where fully pre-fab modular builders are not able to get to those sites because of logistical expenses or the inability to get heavy machinery into those locations," Matt explained.
That reach is the practical end of a global supply chain done well. A pod designed and built with precision can travel further, land on harder sites, and open up land that conventional construction cannot touch. With regulation across Australia now shifting in modular's favour, that capability is becoming more valuable by the year.
The Conversation Is Getting Bigger
A tiny home company presenting to a bilateral business council would have been hard to picture a few years ago. That it happened, and that the room leaned in, says something about where modular construction now sits: not a niche, but part of the mainstream housing conversation.
We are glad to be part of it, and grateful to the ACBC Victoria team for the invitation. You can learn more about the council and its events at acbc.com.au.
Interested in partnering with Elsewhere Pods as we expand globally? Chat to our team.
Key Takeaways
- Elsewhere Pods designs, manufactures and installs high-end modular studio and accommodation pods across Australia.
- Founder and CEO Matt Decarne presented an Elsewhere Pods case study at the Australia China Business Council's Victoria Property Forum in Melbourne on 17 July 2026.
- The presentation covered Australia's housing crisis, the rise of the tiny home and modular industry, and Elsewhere Pods' design-led approach.
- The forum discussed cross-border collaboration, with modular construction's supply chains and manufacturing precision central to the conversation.
- Elsewhere Pods' flat-pack build system enables installation on remote and hard-to-access sites where conventional modular delivery cannot go.