SME SECRETS: Your Space Oceania

Tony Milham’s ambitions go beyond running a successful business. He also wants to help tackle Australia’s housing affordability crisis.

His company Your Space Oceania, which builds steel-framed modular homes, is barely a year old but he’s already got a lengthy order book – testament to the demand for functional, well-appointed housing at an affordable price. 

Milham’s idea for the business was drawn from his years of experience in the logistics sector, where he came to specialise in adapting shipping containers into work and living spaces. Such was his expertise, Milham regularly received calls from people asking him to build them a container home. 

“It got me thinking about how we could bring a product to market that met all the building industry’s regulatory requirements, was super affordable, but also didn’t look like a box home,” Milham tells Wire in an interview.

“We started looking around to see what was already available on the market and soon discovered there was not much.”
 

Many parts of Australia are suffering from an acute shortage of housing, forcing up home prices and rents. New supply is struggling to keep up with demand with housing starts languishing near their lowest levels in over a decade as builders struggle with a range of constraints including high labour and materials costs.

Your Space Oceania’s modular homes are highly adaptable, with uses ranging from starter homes for people working with limited land space to multi-bedroom facilities for aged care or workers’ accommodation. 

From day one, Milham and his team were determined not to compromise on quality, and to use local suppliers as much as possible. So, while his high-grade steel and flooring comes from China, he also uses timber, glass and fabrics from Tasmania, where the company is based.

The key to keeping his costs down is doing the bulk of the work at an assembly plant, rather than on-site. 

“Whenever you do anything in the field it takes forever and it costs a lot,” Milham says. “By bringing all that into a factory you can contain your costs, eliminate weather disruptions, and get a really stable manufacturing environment.” 
 

Milham says securing financing was one of the biggest challenges to getting his business off the ground, a sentiment that will resonate with many early-stage entrepreneurs.

Westpac research shows that 27 per cent of SME business leaders report cashflow as the biggest hurdle they had to overcome in the first two years of establishing a business.

After a few knock backs on loan applications, Milham decided to try his local Westpac branch, where he already had his home loan. He was quickly introduced to an SME finance expert who set him up with a $50,000 business loan for startups.*  

“We know that for many people starting a business, access to funding is a determining factor in getting their business off the ground,” says Tamara Bryden, Westpac Managing Director, Business Lending. 

“We’re committed to supporting the next generation of business owners who want to be their own boss, so we’ve made it less complicated to access finance with dedicated start-up and scale-up loans,” she adds.

After a year of design, engineering and development work, Milham and his team are ready to go out and sell their product across the country. Your Space Oceania will soon open an assembly facility and showroom in Hobart and on the Gold Coast, with plans to further expand into Western Australia and South Australia over the next 12 months. 

Milham says getting the business to this point has taken a lot of persistence and dedication in the face of numerous roadblocks. The key is not losing sight of what drives him.

We’ve always been laser-focused on bringing affordable living to more people. We’re passionate about that.”


* Westpac business loans for start-ups are unsecured loans of between $10,000 and $50,000 with terms of up to five years to help new businesses get started. These are businesses that have operated for less than 2 years and applicants must provide a sound business plan and budget projections and meet eligibility and credit criteria for approval.