Portland airport housing manufacturing hub 'paused' for now

The $2.35 million housing manufacturing hub was announced in September last year and was set to be up and running earlier this year.

Geelong-based business Form Flow has started work on transforming the unused Portland airport hanger into a housing manufacturing hub capable to producing up to 200 relocatable houses a year for the south-west region.

But managing director Matthew Dingle said while the project had started it had been delayed.

"We haven't drummed up enough business to open that properly so we've sort of paused it for now," he said.

But he said there was a couple of large projects in the wings which could restart work on the project.

The project has been impacted by pressures in the housing market which has been hit with rising interest rates and soaring costs which has seen building approvals continue to fall each month.

"A lot of builders have gone out of business in the last six to eight months," Mr Dingle said.

"It's an awkward time. There's no doubting there is a huge need out there but turning that into projects and getting contracts signed has been pretty challenging."

However, he said he was starting to see some positive signs and movement in the industry, and the company had been in talks with large businesses in Warrnambool, Portland and South Australia.

Mr Dingle said the company needed to make sure it had a pipeline of projects before the project could ramp up production.

"It's just taking some time," he said.

Work has been done on putting in a new access road at the airport, and fire protection infrastructure had been installed but the remaining works have been put on hold for now.

Mr Dingle said the state government had approached the company about setting up something in Portland on the basis that there was a real need for key worker housing.

The state government chipped in $800,000 towards the project.

When the hub does get up and running, it would manufacture one, two, three and four-bedroom homes which were built to last.

When the project was announced, the smallest home would have cost about $130,000 and a three-bedroom about $400,000.

In August this year, state government Minister for Regional Development Harriet Shing announced $100,000 for housing provider DEC Housing to create a business case to determine Portland's future housing needs.

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