Metricon tops the number of starts seven years running

Metricon has again topped the HIA-Colorbond Steel Top 100 Report which ranks Australia’s largest 100 residential builders based on the number of homes commenced each year.

Metricon Homes reported a total of 5,969 home starts for the 2021-22 year, marginally lower than the 6,052 starts the previous year.

These starts were across Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia.

HIA Chief Economist Tim Reardon said that this is the seventh consecutive year Metricon Homes has been revealed as the nation’s largest residential builder.

“Continuing its move up the ladder from fourth in 2019/20 to second this year was the MJH Group (NXT Building Group) with 4,143 starts,” Mr Reardon said.

“The third largest home builder in Australia, and the largest apartment builder last year, was Hutchies with 3,829 starts.

“This is an exceptional result given the tough market conditions in the multi-unit market compared to the boom conditions in the detached market.”

Rounding out the top five are ABN Group (3,393) and the AHB Group (2,973) in fourth and fifth respectively.

These results are against a market that has seen new home starts lower than the record set the previous year.

For this reason, two thirds of the builders in this year’s Housing 100 commenced fewer homes than in 2020/21.

The market share of this largest 100 builders also shrank from 44 per cent to 36 per cent.

The market in 2021/22 was dominated by the adverse impact of rising material prices caused by record levels of demand, supply chain constraints and labour shortages.

Mr Reardon said that the supply of building materials has improved significantly in recent months.

“Shipping costs are declining and the rise in building material costs on the ground is slowing, in some cases, prices have fallen.

“The cost of building will continue to increase in 2022/23, but at a slower rate than last year.”

A notable feature of the market in 2021/22 was the return of apartment builders.

The loss of overseas migration saw the apartment market shrink rapidly at the start of the pandemic, but a return to work and study is seeing the apartment market recovering.

A stabilisation in the cost of construction combined with an acute shortage of rental accommodation will continue to see a strengthening in the apartment market.

Mr Reardon explained that the return of overseas students, tourists and migrants will see the number of multi-unit dwelling starts continue to recover the further we get away from the pandemic.

The key highlights from this year’s HIA-Colorbond Steel Housing 100 Report shows that the largest 100 residential builders:

Reduced their share of the new home building market from 44 per cent (all time high) in 2020/21 to 36 per cent in 2021/22

Accounted for 77 per cent of the detached homes built in Australia in 2021/22

Built 15 per cent fewer homes, from 88,215 home starts in 2020/21 to 74,973 in 2021/22

Built 4 per cent fewer detached houses compared to the previous year, 21.3 per cent more multi-units

Despite this fall in the number of homes, the industry earned 8.8 per cent more revenue from home construction, up to $34.7 billion in 2021/22 due to the rise in the cost of construction.