Australia’s housing market is insane, and Bunnings has joined the fray with an interesting alternative – DIY tiny homes. They’ve partnered up with Elsewhere Pods to offer up flatpack homes, so you can build yourself a cosy space to stay in. The smaller studio costs $26,100, while the larger option costs $42,900. You don’t need a permit to build this space, but you do still need to find some land to put it on. If you’ve got a generous relative with a sizeable backyard, perhaps this is an option for you?
Bunnings DIY tiny homes
Bunnings soft-launched these Elsewhere Pods in December last year. The pods arrive as compact flat-pack, so you and a buddy can just carry it into a backyard.
The smaller studio is really just a room at 2.7m x 2.4m, while the larger option is 4m x 2.4m. Both of them include double-glazed 8mm glass, and high soundproofing for privacy. Both of the options take two days to assemble, and can be ordered online or in-store at the Special Orders desk. The estimated lead time is 10 weeks.
If you’ve got a lot of experience working with tools, you should be fine with the assembly, but it’s still more complicated than putting together some IKEA furniture. You’ll just need an electrician to take care of the more complicated parts.
“Tiny homes and outdoor rooms offer great flexibility,” said Bunnings Chief Executive Officer Ryan Baker. “They can be anything from a home office to an extra bedroom, studio, pool house or hobby space – all without the cost and complexity of a full renovation.”
The space can also be used as crisis accommodation. Elsewhere Pods founder Matt Decarne told the Australian Financial Review that he first had the idea for these modular homes when his mother lost her home in the 2020 floods in northern NSW. Within eight weeks, he built her a tiny home pod, so she wouldn’t have to couch-surf any longer.
Strangely enough, Bunnings isn’t the only retailer selling flatpack rooms. Amazon also sells prefab homes, so if this is something you’re considering, you can shop around and compare prices.
Median house prices for January 2026
According to Cotality, Australian house prices rose by 0.8% in January.
The median value for a house in Melbourne was $989,356, and $639,145 for a unit in January 2026. In regional Victoria, the median value for a house was $654,340, and for a unit, it was $449,961.
The price tag is eyewatering, but we are doing better than our neighbours in Sydney, where the median house price is $1,598,819, the highest in the country. In Sydney, the median unit price is $903,210. Further north in Brisbane, the median cost for a home is $1,149,589, and $824,764.