by Ayesha Rehman
More than half of Australians would now consider buying or living in a pod-style or prefab home.
The figure comes from a nationally representative survey of more than 1,000 people, commissioned by Money.com.au and conducted by Pureprofile in 2026, weighted and stratified by age, gender and location. Fifty-four per cent said yes.
The detail underneath that number is more interesting than the number itself.
Who Is Actually Saying Yes
Gen X was the most open of any generation, at 60 per cent. Millennials followed at 56 per cent. Gen Z and Baby Boomers both sat at 49 per cent.
That order surprises people who assume interest in tiny homes runs youngest. It does not. It peaks with Australians in their forties and fifties.
The income splits are sharper again:
- Household income $50,000 to $99,999: 63 per cent
- Household income $100,000 to $149,999: 60 per cent
- Household income $150,000 to $199,999: 45 per cent
Interest is strongest in the lower and middle brackets and falls away in the highest one surveyed.
The Cost Gap Behind the Shift
PropTrack put the national median home price at $903,000 in June, rising to $1,005,000 across the capital cities.
Land accounts for much of that. The most recent HIA residential land report puts the median residential lot across the capitals at $437,855, and the average allotment across regional centres at $295,160.
Against those figures, our smallest tiny home, the 4m Micro, starts at $50,000. Our 8m tiny home, which is the model most people end up choosing, is around $115,000 delivered and installed. Reporting the research, realestate.com.au put the potential saving against a median priced home at more than $500,000.
That comparison deserves a caveat we would rather give than have someone else point out. Putting a tiny home on land you already own is a very different proposition to buying land and building on it. Site works, services, access and approvals all carry cost, and they vary from block to block. The saving is real. It is not uniform, and anyone quoting a single number should say so.
Why Interest Peaks Where the Gap Is Widest
Read the income splits against those median prices and the pattern is straightforward. The households most open to a smaller home are the households furthest from affording a conventional one.
Nick Burgess, property expert at Money.com.au, put it this way in the research:
"Many Australians in their 30s, 40s and 50s are realising that owning a smaller, more affordable home may be a better financial outcome than stretching themselves to buy or build a traditional house. These are Australians in their peak home-buying and family-raising years, and many are increasingly open to prefab or pod-style homes as a practical middle ground."
This is the part of the research that matters most. Interest in modular housing is not a design preference moving through the market. It tracks the affordability gap.
The Households That Could Borrow More and Choose Not To
Forty-five per cent of the highest income bracket surveyed would still consider a pod-style home. Nearly half, in the group least pressured by price.
Burgess described two motivations running side by side. "It's either because it's more affordable than brick and mortar or because they don't want to take on a huge mortgage over 30 years like some of their peers."
For that second group the question is not whether they can service a large mortgage. It is whether thirty years of one is a trade worth making. A smaller home bought outright, or close to it, returns time and flexibility that a larger one spends.
Why Gen X Leads
Gen X recording the highest interest of any generation makes sense once you look at what people in that age group are solving for.
Some are adding a second dwelling to land they already own, as accommodation for family or as an income stream. Others are looking further ahead, at moving into a pod on the property themselves and handing the main house to children starting a family of their own.
[INSERT: one real Elsewhere Pods project that fits this use case. Location, pod size, and a short quote from the owner or from the sales team describing the pattern. This section does not stand up without it.]
Both are decisions about an asset rather than an entry point, which is a different conversation to the one the affordability figures describe.
For readers weighing that decision, we have covered the difference between a granny flat and a tiny home separately.
What Is Still Holding People Back
The same survey asked what people saw as the biggest barrier to living in a pod or prefab home.
- Limited space: 46 per cent
- Build quality or durability: 41 per cent
- Lifestyle or comfort: 28 per cent
- Council approvals or zoning restrictions: 27 per cent
- Resale value: 20 per cent
- Social stigma: 4 per cent
The last figure is the one worth pausing on. Only 4 per cent said stigma would stop them, which suggests the cultural argument about tiny homes has largely been settled. What remains are practical questions, and they are fair ones.
Approvals are the most answerable of them. Regulation has been the biggest structural barrier to tiny home adoption in Australia, and it moved meaningfully in 2026. We covered what changed across Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia when those reforms landed.
On resale, the honest answer is that approval status does most of the work. A compliant, approved secondary dwelling is an improvement to the property. An unapproved structure is a liability at sale. That distinction matters more than the building method.
What We Are Seeing at Elsewhere Pods
Since our national partnership with Bunnings launched, demand has moved faster than we forecast. In April we were fielding phone enquiries every 48 seconds, and we brought on additional sales staff to keep up.
Worth clarifying, because the coverage often blurs it: the 2.7m and 4m studios sold through Bunnings are flat-packed for DIY assembly. The rest of our range, including the 8m tiny home, is delivered pre-built and installed by our team, in as little as two days for studios and four days for tiny homes.
Our founder Matt Decarne on what is driving the volume:
"One of the biggest driving forces is Australia's dire need for affordable housing. Australians are searching for smarter, faster and more affordable housing solutions, from backyard studios and granny flats to eco-tourism accommodation and full-time residences."
The geography is not evenly spread. Victoria accounts for around 35 per cent of our buyers and New South Wales around 30 per cent, with Queensland between 15 and 20 per cent. Western Australia and Tasmania are both over-represented relative to their population, and for reasons specific to each. In WA there are simply not enough builders. In Tasmania, getting building materials to site is difficult and expensive.
That is a supply problem as much as a price one, and it is the part of the picture the national survey does not capture.
You can walk through a pod in person at Bunnings Narre Warren and Bunnings Robina on the Gold Coast. Castle Hill in Sydney is next.
Key Takeaways
- Elsewhere Pods designs, manufactures and installs modular studio and accommodation pods in Australia, sold direct and through Bunnings.
- A 2026 Money.com.au survey of more than 1,000 Australians found 54 per cent would consider buying or living in a pod-style or prefab home.
- Gen X was the most open generation at 60 per cent, ahead of Millennials at 56 per cent. Gen Z and Baby Boomers were both at 49 per cent.
- Interest was highest among households earning $50,000 to $99,999 at 63 per cent, and lowest among those earning $150,000 to $199,999 at 45 per cent.
- PropTrack put the national median home price at $903,000 in June 2026, rising to $1,005,000 across the capital cities.
- The Elsewhere Pods 4m Micro starts at $50,000. The 8m tiny home is around $115,000 delivered and installed.
- Limited space (46 per cent) and build quality (41 per cent) were the biggest reported barriers. Social stigma was the smallest, at 4 per cent.
- Modular construction is being taken up as a response to housing affordability, and in Western Australia and Tasmania, to builder and materials shortages.