Hutchies and Metricon top Queensland list of HIA-Colorbond Steel Housing Top 100

After a horror year, Queensland’s construction sector has had a massive shake-up and a new crop of companies now rank among the state’s biggest builders. See who made the cut.

The number of new dwelling starts in Queensland edged lower in a year which saw apartment construction return and a wave of building company collapses.

HIA-Colorbond Steel Housing Top 100 report found dwelling construction starts in Queensland fell by 1 per cent to 39,832 in 2021-22 compared to 40,059 in the previous 12 months.

Hutchinson Builders was again the top ranked company in Queensland with 3003 dwelling starts, up 51.6 per cent on 2020-21 underpinned by a surge in apartment starts. Under siege builder Metricon Homes was in second place rising 2.6 per cent to 1208 compared to last year.

HIA Chief economist Tim Reardon said apartments have “made a comeback”.

“With the start of Covid apartments took a hit which was reflected in last year’s figures and although they’re well below what they were pre-Covid they’re on the way back,” he said.

“In the south east corner of Queensland there is an acute rental shortage and with the increase in interstate migration, the return of overseas migration and very strong employment conditions there will be a decade of strong to medium and high density housing to be built in Queensland.”

Dwelling construction starts in Queensland fell by 1 per cent to 39,832 in 2021-22 compared to 40,059 in the previous 12 months.

The return of the apartment market has seen Meriton Apartments in fifth place with 757 dwellings compared to nothing the year before, Mirvac is eight with 531 starts compared to zero the previous 12 months while Tomkins is 11th with 456 units, an increase of almost 30 per cent.

The biggest mover was Murphy Builders Qld which recorded 293 dwelling starts – a 344 per cent increase in the previous year while housing specialist Tamawood fell 43.2 per cent and Burbank Group dropped by 38.5 per cent.

Household names like Condev Constructions and Privium which were listed in 10th and 11th place last year were no longer on the top 20 list after collapsing. Other high profile homes builder casualties over the 12 months were BA Murphy, Pivotal Homes and Oracle Platium Homes.

Mr Reardon said the market was dominated by the adverse impact of rising material prices caused by record levels of demand, supply chain constraints and labour shortages.

“The supply of building materials has improved significantly in recent months. Shipping costs are declining and the rise in building material costs on the ground is slowing. In some cases, prices have fallen. The cost of building will continue to increase in 2022-23, but at a slower rate than last year,” he said.

Privium boss Rob Harder.

Queensland’s market share of the largest 20 builders in 2022-21 decreased from 36 per cent to 33 per cent.

While in 2020-21 dwelling construction starts increased by 19 per cent compare to the previous 12 months, underpinned by HomeBuilder and record low interest rates, Mr Reardon expects the amount of new starts to steadily decrease.

“While this year was still one of the best years on record but things will slowly go off the boil,” he said. “Rising interest rates will bring this boom to an end.”

Across Australia Metricon topped the list with 5969 starts, across Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia.

However, like other builders Metricon had to adjust to the new realities and in August announced it would slash almost 10 per cent of its staff to counter the headwinds plaguing the construction sector.

Metricon chief executive Peter Langfelder said the company has been able to navigate through and thrive in the midst of arguably the most challenging market conditions the industry has ever experienced.

“Escalating construction costs, weaker consumer confidence, consecutive central bank interest rate increases, rising inflation plus speculation around the industry’s stability all conspired against us and our competitors alike,” he said.

Mr Langfelder said Metricon is expected to continue to contract, on average 100 homes every week during the next 12 months – a figure that aligns with pre-pandemic levels.

“Our future construction pipeline shows we’re in good shape to deliver around 6000 site-starts in 2023,” he said.