Main page › Guides › Housing type selector

Which housing type fits your situation

From Modular Living Australia — the independent knowledge base Last updated: 3 Aug 2026

Australian buyers usually arrive at factory-built housing with a budget in mind and no settled view on which category they are actually shopping for. The categories overlap — many builders offer several — but they diverge sharply on the things that decide whether a project is possible at all: whether the dwelling can exist on your land, whether a lender will fund it, whether it can be sold separately later, and whether it is treated as a building or as something else entirely.^[1][2]

This tool asks five questions and sorts the four categories against your answers. It cannot tell you what is permitted on your specific block, because that depends on the council, the zone and any overlays that apply. What it can do is narrow the field before you start ringing builders, and tell you which category to rule out and why.

Answer five questions §

Every question is optional. Leaving one unanswered simply means the tool has less to work with.

What separates the four categories §

The labels are used loosely in marketing, and two builders may describe the same product differently. The distinctions that matter are structural rather than stylistic.

Granny flat, or secondary dwelling

A self-contained dwelling with its own entrance, kitchen, bathroom and living area, on the same lot as a principal home. In New South Wales, published guidance describes secondary dwellings as governed by State Environmental Planning Policy (Housing) 2021 and states that they cannot be sold separately from the main title.^[1] The category is defined by its relationship to an existing house, not by how it was built — a granny flat may be modular, panelised or conventionally constructed.

Modular house fixed to the land

Manufactured as three-dimensional modules, transported, and assembled on site as a permanent dwelling. Once installed it is treated as a house: it needs council approval, it forms part of the land, and it is not intended to be moved again.

Transportable or relocatable home

Factory-built and engineered so that relocation remains possible after installation. In practice relocation is a project rather than a routine event — it involves disconnection, transport approvals, and approval at the destination.

Tiny home on wheels

A compact dwelling that stays on a trailer. Published guidance describes Australian tiny homes as typically 15–55 m², with wheeled versions needing to respect road limits of roughly 4.3 m in height, 2.5 m in width and about 9 m in length in order to travel without special permits.^[2] The trailer is the defining feature, and it is what changes the legal and financial treatment.

Where the boundaries bite §

Three questions decide most cases, and all three are worth settling before you approach a builder.

Whether it can be sold on its own

A secondary dwelling shares a title with the principal home. Published NSW guidance states directly that it cannot be sold separately from the main title.^[1] If separate resale matters to you — as an asset you might dispose of independently, or as security you might refinance against — that is a reason to look at a house on its own lot instead, and to raise subdivision with a planner early rather than late.

Whether a lender will treat it as property

Lender treatment of off-site construction varies between institutions.^[2] For dwellings that stay on wheels the gap is wider still: published guidance notes that tiny homes are often financed through personal or vehicle-style loans rather than standard mortgages.^[3] The practical effect is that the category you choose can determine the interest rate and term available to you, which is a different question from what the dwelling costs to build.

Whether it is regulated as a building at all

The Queensland regulator states that where a tiny home remains on wheels and is not fixed to land or connected to services, it may fall outside building laws.^[4] That cuts both ways. It can mean fewer approval steps; it also means the consumer protections attached to building work may not attach to it. The same source notes that the Queensland Home Warranty Scheme covers on-site residential construction work including installation, but not off-site manufacturing.^[4]

Positions in the other states and territories are not covered by the sources compiled here. Rather than reading the Queensland position across, confirm the treatment in your state with the relevant building regulator before committing.

What this tool does not do §

It does not tell you what is permitted on your block. Zoning, minimum lot sizes, overlays and covenants operate at the council level and can rule out a category that looks available at state level.

It does not weigh cost. Two categories can be equally viable and differ substantially in price, and the ranking above takes no account of that.

It does not settle the finance question. It flags where finance is likely to be a constraint, but only a lender or broker can tell you what you can borrow against a particular structure.

Nothing entered on this page is stored or transmitted. Reloading clears every answer.

References §