While there may be an immediate demand, addressing it will take time but the announcement was a glimpse into the work that has been happening behind the scenes across the south-west.

FormFlow's $2.35 million project to build modular housing in an old aircraft hangar at Portland airport is a sign there is more to come in this space.

While its first house is expected to roll off the production line in April, getting affordable housing onto the ground across the region is the aim of newly formed Warrnambool-based HEM Communities.

The HEM Communities project was originally conceived by Steve Myers, of Myers Planning Group, and aims to increase support for victims of domestic violence via supply of dedicated housing.

Its director Andrew Castles was at Thursday's announcement and said the first project would kick off in 2023, but it was too soon to detail where.

Formed in May, Mr Castles said they had been in talks with local governments and property developers across the region about developing a sustainable business model of housing supply.

"With the cost of both land and construction increasing substantially, this has proven difficult," he said. But they think they have come up with a cost-effective solution that was also of high standard.

Mr Castles said they hoped to be a customer of FormFlow, partnering with them to help deliver affordable housing across the region. "We're very, very excited," he said.

"We've got aspirations to make a difference however we can across different communities.

"This is exactly what we need, to be able to get modular housing."

Mr Castles said some of the available land they were able to access might only be utilised if there was modular rather than permanent housing.

"Things can be moved and taken away. This is really contemporary so it's certainly going to be a fit for our needs as well as the communities needs," he said.

"The landscape is going to change for having a certain percentage of new developments being apportioned to affordable or social housing.

"Being in the town planning office we can see the crest of that wave and are looking to really maximise what benefit does go towards affordable housing."

He said their role would be getting the housing onto the land and become the custodians or the managers of the properties.

"We can see a segment of our overall business model where good quality modular housing is acquired by HEM Communities and remains an asset across multiple sites over its lifetime," Mr Castles said.

Mr Castles said they had heard numerous stories throughout the region where people had declined local jobs because they couldn't find housing to relocate into.

"Unless more land and housing are made available, the problem will become worse," he said.

An additional 3000 social housing dwellings will be required in Warrnambool alone by 2036.

"To be successful, the onus or burden can't sit with government alone," he said.

FormFlow's manufacturing hub in Portland will produce one, two, three and four-bedroom homes ranging in price from $130,000 to about $400,000 for a three-bedroom house.

General manager Matthew Dingle said the houses were not "cheap" but were good value for money and designed to last forever.

"Which means they can be sold and resold and resold and they'll effectively get cheaper and cheaper," he said.

"Rather than thinking about them as a 20 or 30-year proposition, we're thinking about them as a 200 or 200-year proposition instead.

"We believe that a house should be designed to last forever... to do this means changing the way we design and assemble the components so they can be reused."

He said they should be designed to withstand floods, fire and wind, but also be affordable.

The workforce would be ramped up from 10 to 50 over time, with one house a week set to initially come out of the hangar but increase to about 200 a year.

Dr Dingle said he had been in discussions with South West TAFE about using it as an opportunity for training.

If it takes off, there could be 20 to 30 similar plants within a few years across the country.

With new windfarms on the horizon for the region, Mr Dingle said that could be one sector that utilised the housing produced in the hub for workers.

Not only will the hub have the capacity to manufacture housing for key workers and seasonal workers, it could also provide housing for National Disability Insurance Scheme participants and for emergency responses.

Glenelg Shire Council deputy mayor Scott Martin said in Portland, as it was right across Victoria, there were large number of vacancies that couldn't be filled because of a lack of availability of housing to bring workers.

He said the announcement of the new hub was a "very important piece of the puzzle".

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