HIA reveals top home builders for 2019

HIA has uncovered Australia’s best home builders for the 2019 calendar year.

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While this has been a “challenging” year for home builders, given that the number of new home starts has contracted sharply, some have still managed to exceed expectations.

For the fourth consecutive year, Metricon Homes was revealed as the nation’s number one residential builder at the launch of the HIA-COLORBOND steel Housing 100 Report in Melbourne this week.

Metricon Homes reported a total of 4,473 new home starts across Victoria, Queensland, NSW and South Australia. Of these starts, 4,303 were detached houses and 170 were semi-detached dwellings, HIA said.

Next up was Meriton Apartments, who recorded 3,288 housing starts, followed by the ABN Group with 2,987 starts.

Overall the market has contracted by 15 per cent. Similarly, the number of new homes constructed by the Housing 100 builders was smaller, falling 6 per cent, a statement from HIA said.

The market share of the Housing 100 builders has increased to 35 per cent this year from 33 per cent in 2017-18. This is the highest market share since 2013-14 and is consistent with previous trends where volume home builders gained market share in a contracting market.

This year’s results also highlight that the hotspots for building activity have shifted. Home building 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, HIA added.

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.

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