With government intervention, more prefabricated houses can be established to meet the housing demand that exists in the country.

This has been highlighted by the General Manager of the Public Rental Board, Timoci Naleba.

Naleba states that prefabricated houses can cut down the on the cost of construction, time, and labor significantly.

Prefabricated materials are building materials that are manufactured in sections that can be assembled on site and can be reused in different parts of a project.

Prefabricated materials had been introduced in Fiji in the early 80’s; however, there was little reception towards such an option for construction purposes.

“The idea of the government to come up with prefabricated homes is a timely one; the reason why I say that is because of the fact that most of our building and construction costs in Fiji are quite high, sometimes very high, and the cost of materials from hardware’s is high.”

The General Manager for the Public Rental Board acknowledges the efforts of the government in exploring new building options for housing.

Naleba says that the prefab home that is being built as a show home meets the cyclone standards of Fiji.

Meanwhile, the government had announced in the 2024-2025 national budget that the import duty on prefabricated materials decreased from 32 percent to 5 percent from the beginning of this month.