THREE Western Australian builders have been ranked in the top 20 in the Housing Industry Association's annual Housing 100 survey.
BGC Australia was named as the country's biggest builder and Osborne Park-based builders Alcock/Brown Neaves Group was the nation's second biggest, according to the HIA.
BGC had 3,844 starts, which was an increase on the previous year's 3,304. The result marks the sixth consecutive year BGC has been named Australia's top builder.
In 2008-09 the company built 3,580 detached houses, making it the largest detached house builder, and 264 units.
ABN Group experienced a slight decrease in starts, from 3,000 in 2007-08 to 2,872 in 2008-09.
JWH Group was the only other Western Australian builder to crack the top 20, with 1,390 starts, a slight decrease from the previous year's 1,416.
Making its first appearance in the HIA's Housing 100 was McGrath Homes with 146 starts in 2008-09 and Highbury Homes WA, with 88 starts.
In WA, new dwelling starts fell by 18 per cent to 18,376, while the market share of the largest 20 builders increased from 61 per cent to 72 per cent this year.
Nationally, the survey showed the number of housing starts by the nation's largest 100 builders fell by 6.5 per cent from 52,815 to 49,360.
The nation's top 100 builders started 49,360 dwellings in 2008-09, 3,455 fewer than the year before.
In 2008-09 there were 39,947 detached houses and 9,413 flats, units and townhouses started.
The HIA's forecast for 2009-10 is for growth of 8 per cent, or 141,660 housing starts.
