Saltair dual wins at the 2026 HIA Sunshine Coast & Wide Bay Housing Awards
Saltair wins Project Home and GreenSmart Sustainable Home at the 2026 HIA Sunshine Coast & Wide Bay Housing Awards
HIA's GreenSmart Sustainable Home category recognises the housing project that best combines cost-effective environmental performance with sound design and construction. Judges score entries against weighted criteria:
- Quality of workmanship (25 points)
- Energy efficiency and management (20 points)
- Water efficiency and water management (20 points)
- Innovation (14 points)
- Visual appeal (6 points)
- Resource efficiency, indoor air quality and cost effectiveness (5 points each)
The weighting tells you something important. Sustainability here is not a matter of adding features at the end. Almost half the available points sit with energy and water performance, and a quarter with the quality of the build itself. A home cannot score well without both.
Saltair's winning entry is a two-storey home on a sloping coastal site, designed around deep covered decks, cross-ventilation and rainwater capture.
A project home is a design a builder has developed, refined and can deliver repeatedly, with set layouts and inclusions rather than a one-off custom plan. The Project Home category recognises the builder whose design delivers the best combination of liveability, quality and value in that format.
That format suits modular construction. Because Saltair designs, engineers and manufactures each home in its own factories, a proven design can be built to the same standard every time, with fewer variables than a traditional site build. Saltair's winning project home is a single-level Doonan design set among established trees, with a COLORBOND® steel roof, a separate carport pavilion and a generous outdoor living edge opening to the pool.
Building in a controlled factory environment gives Saltair a level of precision that is difficult to achieve on an exposed building site. Insulation, sealing and framing are installed under cover and checked before each module leaves the factory, which supports better thermal performance once the home is installed.
Factory production also reduces waste. Saltair recycles 86 per cent of its unavoidable construction waste and is a member of the Green Building Council of Australia. With ISO 14001 environmental certification sitting alongside ISO 9001 quality and ISO 45001 safety systems, sustainability is built into the process rather than added at the end.
Because the home is largely complete when it arrives, time on site is shorter, with less disruption to the land and the neighbours. On a sloping or sensitive site, like the GreenSmart-winning home, that matters.
These wins add to a long run of HIA recognition for Saltair, which has been named HIA Queensland's Most Awarded Modular Builder, with HIA honours stretching back to 2015. In 2025 Saltair won the HIA Sunshine Coast & Wide Bay Modular and Prefabricated Housing award, and was also a regional winner at the Master Builders Housing & Construction Awards.
Winners of major regional categories go on to compete at the HIA Queensland Housing Awards, held in Brisbane in November.
Frequently asked questions
A project home is built from a design the builder has already developed and delivered, with a set layout and inclusions that can be personalised within limits. It usually means faster planning and more cost certainty than a fully custom design.
They describe different things. A project home is about how the design is chosen; modular is about how the home is built. A modular home can be a project design or fully custom. Saltair builds both, and as we like to say, modular is a method, not a style.
GreenSmart is the Housing Industry Association's program promoting sustainable, resource-efficient residential building. The GreenSmart Sustainable Home award recognises a completed home judged on energy and water efficiency, workmanship, innovation and cost effectiveness.
They can be very efficient. Factory construction allows insulation, sealing and framing to be installed and inspected under controlled conditions, which supports strong thermal performance. Actual ratings depend on the design, orientation and specification of each home.
A well-built modular home is constructed to the same National Construction Code requirements as a site-built home. Independent awards judged on workmanship, such as HIA's, are a useful benchmark when comparing builders.
Yes. Winners of major categories at the Sunshine Coast & Wide Bay awards progress to the HIA Queensland Housing Awards. We are pleased to say, that includes both of these projects.
Planning your own build
Every home is different. The design that suits you, its sustainability performance and its cost all depend on your site, your council's requirements and how you want to live. Saltair's sales team can talk you through the award-winning designs, what can be adapted for your block, and what to expect at each stage, from design through manufacture, delivery and installation.