Builder revenue up 8.8% but fewer homes built

The HIA-COLORBOND steel Housing 100 Report ranked Australia’s largest 100 residential builders across the country based on the number of homes commenced each year.

The key highlights from the report showed a reduced share of the new home building market falling from a record high of 44 per cent in 2020/21 to 36 per cent in 2021/22. Fifteen per cent fewer homes were built, from 88,125 home starts in 2020/21 to 74,973 in 2021/22.

The largest 100 residential builders also accounted for 77 per cent of detached homes built in the nation over the last year, however this was 4 per cent less than the previous year.

According to the report, despite the fall in numbers of homes being built, revenue was up 8.8 per cent from home construction, up to $34.7 billion in 2021/22, which is attributed to the rise in cost of construction.

Metricon Homes was revealed to be Australia’s largest residential builder for the seventh consecutive year. The statistics were collected from across Victoria, Queensland, NSW and South Australia.

HIA chief economist Tim Reardon stated Metricon Homes reported a total of 5,969 home starts, however this was “marginally lower than the 6,052 starts in the previous year”.

Following Metricon Homes in the top five were MJH Group with 4,143 starts, Hutchies at 3,829, ABN Group at 3,393 and AHB Group at 2,973.

Further findings have shown that apartment builders were a notable feature of the 2021/22 market after shrinking rapidly at the start of the pandemic. However, a return to work and study has seen the apartment market steadily recovering.

“These results are against a market that has seen new home starts lower than the record set the previous year,” Mr Reardon said.

“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.”

Mr Reardon added that the market over the last year had been dominated by the “adverse impact of rising material prices” caused by record levels of demand, supply chain constraints and labour shortages.

“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,” concluded Mr Reardon.

HIA recorded a 1.2 per cent fall in new home sales over April this year, which left national sales 8.8 per cent lower than the same period in 2021.

[RELATED: Newly built home sales slowed in April: HIA]