WESTERN Australia’s share of the nation’s top 20 largest builders slipped slightly over the past year, according to the Housing Industry Association’s annual Housing 100 report.
WESTERN Australia’s share of the nation’s top 20 largest builders slipped slightly over the past year, according to the Housing Industry Association’s annual Housing 100 report.
While the top two builders in the nation were Perth-based in BGC (Australia) and ABN Group, with 4,392 starts and 3,526 starts respectively, WA’s market share eased from 76 per cent to 75 per cent over 2009/2010.
BGC’s reign atop the rankings was the company’s seventh consecutive year as the nation’s largest homebuilder, and all of its 4,392 new houses were built in Western Australia.
“BGC’s ongoing success has been mainly attributed to strong activity in the first homeowner segment as well as in the competitive mainstream housing and unit development segments of the market,” BGC general manager for housing Kelvin Ryan said.
“This result is an important ongoing recognition for our team, who put in a great effort in a truly competitive environment, by producing the right products and providing the right level of service to our customers.”
Mr Ryan said the result was particularly pleasing in a difficult building environment.
“Our result is in spite of a number of impediments that exist in our industry at present, including a shortage of land, lengthy approval processes and increasing demands from various authorities, all of which add to the cost of a new home,” he said.
“We are seeing some strong signs that the housing market is beginning to change, particularly in Perth. We are a flexible company, backed by a strong manufacturing division, so we are geared towards meeting the needs of our customers.”
Other Western Australian companies appearing in the nation’s top 20 builders were JWH Group, which ranked sixth with 1,651 starts, and Summit Homes Group, which was ranked 20th with 995 starts.
Despite the slight fall in market share, the HIA reported new dwelling starts in Western Australia increased by 26 per cent over the year, to 23,270.
Last financial year WA builders delivered 13,051 houses to market.
Nationally, housing starts in Australia posted a healthier result in 2009/10 following what the HIA termed a “very weak” 2008/09, when total housing starts dropped by 17 per cent.
The HIA has forecast housing starts to grow by 2 per cent in 2011, to 162,600 nationwide.
“The tripling of the federal First Home Owner’s Grant for new homes, low interest rates and social housing programs saw a relatively strong recovery in housing starts in 2009/10,” HIA chief economist Harley Dale said.
“However, as the positive impact from past stimulus programs unwinds, it’s unlikely that we will see further growth in Housing 100 and aggregate housing starts in 2010/11.”
Mr Dale said there were 11,230 more homes built by the top 100 than last year, but the number of multi-unit dwelling developments fell.
“In 2009/10 there were 51,602 detached house starts (up from 39,947) and 8,988 starts for flats, units and townhouses (down from 9,413),” he said.
“The restriction of finance for residential development presents a big constraint, while the stimulus measures masked the insufficient progress made so far in reducing supply-side obstacles related to land, labour, planning, taxation, and regulation.”
“Among other housing policy initiatives, a comprehensive cost reduction program for new housing needs to be a key priority of the federal government.”
