Metricon Homes has again topped the nation’s house builders, but a Victoria-headquartered firm has closed the gap on the construction giant.
It is the ninth year in a row Metricon Homes has landed the top spot in the HIA-COLORBOND steel Housing 100 Report, which ranks Australia’s largest 100 residential builders based on the number of houses begun each year.
Metricon Homes recorded 3894 house starts across Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia in 2023-24.
Second on the list, with just 13 fewer house starts for the year, was the ABN Group.
Stronger market conditions in WA and growth in Victoria had allowed ABN to consolidate its hold as second-largest house builder, with 3881 starts, HIA chief economist Tim Reardon said.
Meriton Apartments had rounded out the top three with 3291 starts across NSW and Queensland, moving up from its fourth place last year, he said.
“This is the tightest result in the 35-year history of this report,” Reardon said.
“Meriton Apartments was also the top ranked apartment builder in the country with 3277-unit starts.
“Multiplex ranked as the second largest apartment builder with 2244 homes, ahead of the Hutchies with 1745.”
Reardon said market confidence was returning to the new home market as interest rates again remained on hold.
“Low levels of unemployment and strong population growth have driven ongoing demand for new homes, despite the increase in the cost of borrowing and a decline in household consumption,” he said.
“The recovery in market confidence isn’t evenly distributed across each jurisdiction, and this has had an impact on the results of this year’s housing 100.
“Leading indicators suggest that the volume of home building activity is set to increase in the second half of 2024 and into 2025.
“Increasingly the outlook for home building is dominated by local factors such as the price of land and state government taxes.
“For this reason, a recovery in building activity in NSW appears set to lag all other jurisdictions.
“At the other end of the spectrum, Queensland, WA and SA appear poised to see an increase in building activity.
“Population growth through the pandemic and then a return of overseas migration have seen a stabilisation of building levels in 2023-24 similar to that seen immediately prior to the pandemic.
“This bodes well for a more stable return to building activity in future years.”
