Australia’s biggest home builders, after suffering a 23 per cent slump in starts last year due to the constraints of soaring costs and delays, now face an uncertain future as capacity returns at a time when the clouds of higher borrowing costs and an economic uncertainty hang over consumers.

Housing starts of the largest 100 builders slumped last year to a decade-low 57,830 in the year to June, Housing Industry Association figures show – the lowest since 51,102 in 2013 – as insolvencies soared 73 per cent in a sector crunched between fixed price contracts and wildly rising input costs.