HIA Housing 100: Australia's Biggest Builders Started 70,553 Homes in 2025/26 — Only the Fifth Year Above 70,000. But New Home Sales Fell 19.3% and HIA Says Don't Read It as the Outlook.
The HIA Housing 100 Report, released on 21 October 2026, shows the largest 100 builders took 35% of the market last year, down from 36%, as smaller builders picked up volume. HIA warns the result is rearward-looking: new home sales fell 19.3% in the three months to August and the cash rate hit 4.6% in September. The desk job now is converting the pipeline.
The big end had a big year
Australia's 100 largest home builders started 70,553 new homes in 2025/26, according to the HIA Housing 100 Report, published by the Housing Industry Association on 21 October 2026. That is 35% of the national home building market, or more than one in every three new homes.
HIA says it is only the fifth time in the report's more than three-decade history that the Housing 100 has passed 70,000 homes in a financial year. The long-run annual average is around 61,300. The other four occasions were the apartment boom of 2016/17 and 2017/18 and the detached boom of 2020/21 and 2021/22.
But the share is slipping to smaller builders
The Housing 100's market share eased from 36% the year before and sits well below the 2020/21 peak of 44%, when the group built around two in every five new homes.
HIA puts part of that down to increased construction volumes among smaller builders, which it says typically operate at the higher end of the market. It also notes that the largest builders generally gain market share when conditions get harder. For a small or mid-sized builder, that is the line to sit with: last year's share gains may not hold if the market turns.
HIA's own warning: don't read this as the outlook
HIA is blunt that the report is "rearward-looking". It says the momentum of 2025/26 "should not be treated as a guide to the outlook", and that more timely indicators had trended down by August 2026.
The numbers HIA points to:
| Indicator | What HIA reports | | --- | --- | | New home sales | Down 19.3% in the three months to August 2026 | | Established house prices | Median down 4.9% from the March 2026 peak | | Cash rate | 4.6% in September 2026, a 15-year high | | Detached house approvals | Up 3.3% in August 2026 to 11,040, the highest month since August 2021 | | Detached approvals, 12 months to August | 123,850 nationally | | Multi-unit approvals, last 12 months | Over 84,000 |
Figures are from the HIA Housing 100 article. HIA says the rise in approvals and starts "largely reflects purchasing decisions made when market conditions were more supportive", and that falling sales have yet to flow through to official building activity figures.
The Accord gap
HIA notes that 123,850 detached approvals is just over half of the 240,000 homes a year needed to hit the Housing Accord target of 1.2 million homes over five years. Even with multi-units added, it says the pipeline "remains below target".
That lines up with Master Builders Australia's 1 October forecasts, which project fewer than 920,000 home starts over the five years to 2030-31 and a 262,000-home deficit over the Accord.
What it means on the desk
This is a report about work already sold. HIA's own framing is that "approvals are not keys in doors" and the job now is to convert the pipeline into finished homes. A few practical moves follow from that:
- Work the pipeline you have. If your book is full of jobs sold in late 2025 and early 2026, focus on getting them from approval to slab without stalls. Those contracts were written in a stronger market.
- Watch the sales line, not the starts line. HIA's sales data leads approvals. If enquiries and signed contracts are slowing, plan staffing and trade bookings for the second half of 2027 now rather than after the gap shows up.
- Check clients' finance before start. With the cash rate at 4.6%, confirm buyers' finance is still in place before you commit to site works.
- Know where you sit against the big end. If you're a smaller builder who picked up volume last year, ask whether that work came from the higher end of the market and whether it will hold if the large builders start winning share back.
This article reports on industry data. It is not financial or business advice.
Sources: HIA, HIA Housing 100 2025/26: Australia's Largest Builders Deliver 70,000+ Homes (21 October 2026); Master Builders Australia, Construction forecasts slashed as policy and economic shocks take toll (1 October 2026); ABS, Building Approvals, Australia, August 2026.
