Metricon Homes has topped the Housing Industry Association's Housing 100 list for the fourth year running, retaining the title of Australia's number one residential builder.

The company reported a total of 4,473 new home starts across Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia, 4,303 of which were detached houses and 170 of which were semi-detached dwellings. 

Metricon Director Peter Langfelder said the result was a testament to Metricon's passion for what they do.

“Our customers have and always will be our top priority, and it is a privilege that Australian home buyers continue to trust us with the most important purchase of their lives. It’s what drives us to continually improve design, construction and customer care,” he said.

Meriton Apartments continued its rapid rise up the list to be the second most active builder in 2018/19, with 2,288 housing starts, while ABN was third with 2,987 starts.

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Source: HIA

According to the data,  the number of new home starts has contracted by 15 per cent, while the number of new homes constructed by the Housing 100 builders was smaller, falling 6 per cent. 

The market share of the Housing 100 builders has increased to 35 per cent this year from 33 per cent in 2017/18, representing highest market share since 2013/14 and aligning previous trends where volume home builders gained market share in a contracting market. 

Homebuilding businesses in Sydney have experienced a sharper contraction in the number of new home starts than other jurisdictions.

On the other hand, the home building market in Melbourne remains exceptionally strong despite a modest cooling over the year. 

There was a larger volume of new apartments commenced by the Housing 100 builders this year which is reflected in a growth in the number of apartment builders on the list. 

The key highlights from this year’s Housing 100 Report for 2018/19 shows that the largest 100 residential builders: 

• Accounted for 71 per cent of the detached homes built in Australia in 2018/19. 
• Decreased revenue earned from home construction by 16.1 per cent to $21.29 billion in 2018/19. 
• Reduced the number of new starts in the year by 6,871 homes. 
• The number of starts required to make the list has also decreased, from 118 to 100. 
• The number of detached house starts declined by 5.8 per cent while the number of units increased by 16.6 per cent.

With the Housing 100 builders increasing their market share in a declining market, this must mean that the smaller building businesses are incurring a disproportionately large burden of the market downturn. Two interest rate cuts, a cut to income tax and the easing of the credit squeeze will start to support economic activity and prevent a more sustained downturn in home building.

Click here to download a copy of the report.

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