Backyard Pods (“granny pods”) featured on Channel Nine News

What are granny pods? They are small secondary dwellings in the backyard, intended to accommodate elder relatives. We’ve been saying it for ages, so it was no surprise when Channel Nine News featured Backyard Pods with the headline: “The mini real estate boom emerging in Queensland“. It’s not just in Queensland, but all over Australia – the backyard pods revolution in housing availability and affordability – it’s already here – and granny pods are here to stay.

The founder of Backyard Pods, Melanie Williamson, explains to Channel Nine News the concept of granny pods – how a growing number of families are installing compact, low-cost “granny pods” in the backyard to accommodate an elder member of the family or elderly parents.

In many respects, the granny pod is an idea that keeps on giving through the generational stages of family life. Today’s granny pod could later become a teenage retreat or “uni student pod”, and later again somewhere for a young couple to save for their own home deposit.

“While the idea of a granny pod is strongly resonant for some people, like one of the families featured in our Channel Nine News story, for others the term isn’t quite right. Some of the customers we’ve helped have been adult sons or daughters, for example, deciding to build a secondary dwelling in the yard behind the home of their parents, so they’re living closer to them in case assistance is needed. People like these prefer the term ‘bachelor pods’ or ‘bachelorette pods’ but it’s just a granny pod by another name. We can even offer trendy Scandi interiors for younger people wanting to live in a granny pod,” she said.

While the Channel Nine News story focused on granny pods in Queensland, Ms Williamson explained the demand is Australia-wide. “We are helping customers with granny pods in the eastern states – mostly in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane, and of course, the Gold Coast and hinterland. The idea of secondary dwellings is not a fad, it’s an imperative considering our aging population and the increased density of housing needed in urban and suburban areas.”