Sumitomo Forestry Australia is the country’s largest home builder, with 8,038 dwelling commencements nationally in 2025/26, according to the Housing Industry Association’s HIA Housing 100 report released at an industry breakfast in Melbourne on Wednesday. The group builds under the Metricon Homes, Henley, Scott Park Group and Wisdom Properties Group brands, and took the top spot after acquiring Metricon in 2024.
The rankings were reported by Sourceable, which covered the launch. The HIA Housing 100 ranks the country’s 100 largest residential builders by the number of dwellings they started over the financial year, and this edition is sponsored by Colorbond Steel.
Sumitomo’s consolidated total was up from 7,311 starts across the same group of businesses in 2024/25. Before the acquisition, Metricon had held the number one position for nine consecutive years.
Perth and Sydney fill out the top five
Behind Sumitomo came Perth-based detached builder ABN Group on 3,764 starts, Sydney-based NEX Building Group on 3,585, Melbourne-based Mirrastone on 3,247, and Perth-based Home Group and Blueprint Homes on 3,097.
Parkview Constructions was the biggest multi-unit builder in the country with 2,735 starts. The sharpest climber was Homecorp Constructions, which jumped from 31st to 13th.
Australia’s 100 largest residential builders broke ground on 70,563 dwellings in 2025/26, up 9.4 per cent on the 64,481 they started the year before, the HIA Housing 100 report shows. That accounted for 35 per cent of all dwelling commencements for the year, which means roughly two in every three homes started in Australia still came from builders outside the list.
Detached did the heavy lifting
The growth wasn’t spread evenly. Detached commencements across the top 100 rose 11 per cent, while multi-unit starts crept up just 1 per cent.
That split matters more to a subbie than the rankings do. Detached volume work is timber frame and truss, roof, external cladding, internal linings, then fitout carpentry through kitchens, robes and skirting, and it turns over on a house-by-house cycle rather than one long apartment program. A year where detached runs 11 times faster than multi-unit is a year where the carpentry and framing crews on estate work stay flat out, and the high-rise formwork and fitout side doesn’t move much at all.
It also concentrates who you’re invoicing. One group now commences more than 8,000 homes a year across four brands, so its rates, its payment terms and its supply arrangements set the going rate for a very large slice of the detached market in Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia.
”The conditions which produced this increase have changed”
HIA chief economist Tim Reardon congratulated builders on lifting output, but flagged that the market behind those numbers has already shifted.
“These results show that Australia’s home builders responded to improving market conditions and increased the supply of new homes in 2025/26,” Reardon said.
“The concern is that the conditions which produced this increase have changed significantly during 2026.”
Reardon pointed to a reversal in rate settings and a change in investor tax treatment as the things that broke the run.
“Since then, the reversal of the 2025 interest rate cuts, weaker consumer confidence and changes to property investment taxation settings have seen new home sales fall.”
Sourceable reports momentum in the recovery has stalled on account of higher interest rates, the Iran War and changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax, with new home sales and building approvals trending down over recent months.
The lag that cuts both ways
The reason a record-ish year and a slowing market can sit in the same report is timing. A house is sold long before anyone pours the slab.
“There is always a lag between a new home sale and commencement of construction. This means the strong result recorded in this year’s Housing 100 reflects market conditions from earlier in the cycle, while the deterioration in sales during 2026 will increasingly weigh on commencements in 2027,” Reardon said.
For anyone on the tools, that lag is the practical bit. The frames going up on estate blocks right now were sold months ago, and HIA expects the existing pipeline of work to keep builders busy for a while yet. The contracts that fill out the back half of 2027 are the ones being signed, or not signed, at display villages today.
Which is why new home sales and monthly building approvals are the numbers worth watching, not commencements. Commencements tell you what happened. Approvals, tracked monthly by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, tell you when the phone stops ringing.
Reardon said the underlying demand hasn’t gone anywhere.
“Underlying demand for housing remains exceptionally strong. Australia continues to have a shortage of homes, population growth remains strong and unemployment remains low.”
He put the fix squarely on governments: “Australia cannot resolve the housing shortage unless governments lower the cost of delivering new homes and provide the stable investment.”
What to watch
HIA also expects renovation activity to keep growing, which is the usual hedge when new-build volumes wobble. Renovation work is smaller, more fragmented and rarely comes through a volume builder’s subcontractor list, so crews geared entirely around estate framing can’t simply switch across without chasing different clients.
If you’re weighing up a second ute, taking on another apprentice or a longer lease on a yard off the back of a busy 2026, the question isn’t how many homes the top 100 started last year. It’s how many display-home contracts your builder signed last quarter, and whether they’re still calling you in for pre-starts eighteen months out.
Frequently asked questions
Who topped the 2025/26 HIA Housing 100 list?
Sumitomo Forestry Australia, which builds under the Metricon Homes, Henley, Scott Park Group and Wisdom Properties Group brands, topped the list with 8,038 dwelling commencements nationally, after acquiring Metricon in 2024.
Why is HIA worried despite the record number of home starts?
HIA chief economist Tim Reardon says the 2025/26 result reflects market conditions from earlier in the cycle. He points to the reversal of 2025 interest rate cuts, weaker consumer confidence and changes to property investment taxation as factors that have since seen new home sales fall, with the effect expected to hit 2027 commencements.
How did detached and multi-unit building compare in 2025/26?
Detached commencements across the top 100 builders rose 11 per cent, while multi-unit starts grew just 1 per cent, according to the HIA Housing 100 report.
Sourced from Sourceable, Housing Industry Association. Original article.
