diff --git a/packages/webpack5/__tests__/configuration/base.spec.ts b/packages/webpack5/__tests__/configuration/base.spec.ts
index 35e6f9fe4..9f6ffeac7 100644
--- a/packages/webpack5/__tests__/configuration/base.spec.ts
+++ b/packages/webpack5/__tests__/configuration/base.spec.ts
@@ -109,4 +109,14 @@ describe('base configuration', () => {
 			force: true,
 		});
 	});
+
+	it('supports --env.profile', () => {
+		init({
+			platform: 'ios',
+			profile: true,
+		});
+		const config = base(new Config());
+
+		expect(config.get('profile')).toBe(true);
+	});
 });
diff --git a/packages/webpack5/package.json b/packages/webpack5/package.json
index 210e9a290..dc1d34e75 100644
--- a/packages/webpack5/package.json
+++ b/packages/webpack5/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
 	"name": "@nativescript/webpack",
-	"version": "5.0.4",
+	"version": "5.0.5-rc.0",
 	"private": false,
 	"main": "dist/index.js",
 	"files": [
diff --git a/packages/webpack5/src/bin/index.ts b/packages/webpack5/src/bin/index.ts
index b8e1656bb..87ceed551 100644
--- a/packages/webpack5/src/bin/index.ts
+++ b/packages/webpack5/src/bin/index.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env node
 
-import { redBright, green, greenBright } from 'chalk';
+import { redBright, green, greenBright, yellow } from 'chalk';
 import { program } from 'commander';
 import dedent from 'ts-dedent';
 import webpack from 'webpack';
@@ -115,6 +115,28 @@ program
 						errorDetails: env.verbose,
 					})
 				);
+
+				// if webpack profile is enabled we write the stats to a JSON file
+				if (configuration.profile || env.profile) {
+					console.log(
+						[
+							'',
+							'|',
+							`|  The build profile has been written to ${yellow(
+								'webpack.stats.json'
+							)}`,
+							`|  You can analyse the stats at ${green(
+								'https://webpack.github.io/analyse/'
+							)}`,
+							'|',
+							'',
+						].join('\n')
+					);
+					fs.writeFileSync(
+						path.join(process.cwd(), 'webpack.stats.json'),
+						JSON.stringify(stats.toJson())
+					);
+				}
 			}
 		};
 
diff --git a/packages/webpack5/src/configuration/base.ts b/packages/webpack5/src/configuration/base.ts
index 842f28ea4..d8548711f 100644
--- a/packages/webpack5/src/configuration/base.ts
+++ b/packages/webpack5/src/configuration/base.ts
@@ -222,6 +222,11 @@ export default function (config: Config, env: IWebpackEnv = _env): Config {
 			});
 	});
 
+	// enable profiling with --env.profile
+	config.when(env.profile, (config) => {
+		config.profile(true);
+	});
+
 	// worker-loader should be declared before ts-loader
 	config.module
 		.rule('workers')
diff --git a/packages/webpack5/src/index.ts b/packages/webpack5/src/index.ts
index eb77451cb..47ecb41ce 100644
--- a/packages/webpack5/src/index.ts
+++ b/packages/webpack5/src/index.ts
@@ -43,6 +43,9 @@ export interface IWebpackEnv {
 	// enable verbose output
 	verbose?: boolean;
 
+	// enable webpack profiling
+	profile?: boolean;
+
 	// misc
 	replace?: string[] | string;
 	watchNodeModules?: boolean;
diff --git a/packages/webpack5/src/loaders/xml-namespace-loader/index.ts b/packages/webpack5/src/loaders/xml-namespace-loader/index.ts
index edb3fbf68..585f989a7 100644
--- a/packages/webpack5/src/loaders/xml-namespace-loader/index.ts
+++ b/packages/webpack5/src/loaders/xml-namespace-loader/index.ts
@@ -75,16 +75,22 @@ async function parseXML(content: string): Promise<ParseResult> {
 		const resolvePaths = [
 			localNamespacePath,
 			localModulePath,
-			`${localModulePath}.xml`,
 			moduleName,
 			namespace,
-			`${moduleName}.xml`,
 			`~/${moduleName}`,
 			`~/${namespace}`,
+		];
+
+		// fallbacks for codeless namespaces
+		const fallbackResolvePaths = [
+			`${localModulePath}.xml`,
+			`${moduleName}.xml`,
 			`~/${moduleName}.xml`,
 		];
-		DEBUG && console.log({ resolvePaths });
+
+		DEBUG && console.log({ resolvePaths, fallbackResolvePaths });
 		let resolvedPath;
+		let isFallbackPath = false;
 
 		for (const p of resolvePaths) {
 			resolvedPath = await resolveAsync(this.context, p).catch(noop);
@@ -95,7 +101,23 @@ async function parseXML(content: string): Promise<ParseResult> {
 			}
 		}
 
-		DEBUG && console.log({ resolvedPath });
+		if (!resolvedPath) {
+			for (const p of fallbackResolvePaths) {
+				resolvedPath = await resolveAsync(this.context, p).catch(noop);
+
+				// break on first match
+				if (resolvedPath) {
+					isFallbackPath = true;
+					break;
+				}
+			}
+		}
+
+		DEBUG &&
+			console.log({
+				resolvedPath,
+				isFallbackPath,
+			});
 
 		// bail if we haven't resolved a path
 		if (!resolvedPath) {
@@ -104,10 +126,15 @@ async function parseXML(content: string): Promise<ParseResult> {
 
 		const { dir, name } = parse(resolvedPath);
 
-		// register resolved path + short name
-		namespaces.push({ name: namespace, path: resolvedPath });
-		namespaces.push({ name: moduleName, path: resolvedPath });
-		this.addDependency(resolvedPath);
+		DEBUG && console.log({ namespace, moduleName });
+
+		// check if we are not in a fallback path, in which case we shouldn't register it as a namespace
+		if (!isFallbackPath) {
+			// register resolved path + short name
+			namespaces.push({ name: namespace, path: resolvedPath });
+			namespaces.push({ name: moduleName, path: resolvedPath });
+			this.addDependency(resolvedPath);
+		}
 
 		const noExtFilename = join(dir, name);