Queensland’s 100 largest residential builders wrote 962 fewer new home contracts in FY2025/26 and still lifted total contract value by 4.9%. For an industry that has long measured success in homes built, that gap raises a useful question about what growth actually looks like.
For a long time, residential construction has measured success in one currency. Volume.
How many homes did you build? How many contracts did you sign? How many sites were running at once?
The bigger the number, the bigger the business looked.
That measure still matters. But our Top 100 Queensland Builders research suggests it no longer tells the whole story.
In FY2025/26, the state’s 100 largest residential builders wrote 15,433 new home contracts, down from 16,395 the year before. Over the same period, total contract value rose 4.9% to $8.33 billion. The average contract rose 11.5% to $539,791.
Fewer homes. More money. That is not a busier market. It is a different one.
Rising contract values are not just a cost story
The obvious explanation for a higher average contract is that everything costs more to build. Our analysis tested that, and costs explain only part of the gap.
Over the same window, input materials to house construction rose about 2.5%. The broader measure covering materials and labour rose around 4%. The median builder in the ranking lifted its average contract by 9.4%, and the average across the whole panel rose 11.5%.
On our reading of the data, roughly two thirds of the increase came from mix and pricing rather than costs passed through.
Builders did not simply add a premium to every quote. The type of home being contracted changed.
The lower end of the market thinned while the top end grew
The clearest shift sat at the bottom. Contracts under $400,000 fell by more than half, from close to one in four builds to about one in eight. Every price band under $500,000 shrank.
At the other end, contracts worth $750,000 or more grew 45%, the fastest movement of any tier.
That reflects a pressure builders across the country will recognise. Land, labour, materials and compliance have pushed the cost of an entry level new home to the point where the price that works for the buyer and the price that works for the builder are harder to reconcile.
Demand for affordable new homes has not gone away. Delivering them at a workable margin has become harder.
Volume tells you how much is being built. Value tells you what is being built.
Two builders can grow in very different ways
A simple comparison shows why counting homes can mislead.
Builder A contracts 500 homes at an average of $400,000. That is $200 million of work.
Builder B contracts 300 homes at an average of $700,000. That is $210 million.
Builder A builds more houses. Builder B secures more value, with 200 fewer sites to run.
Neither model is automatically better. A volume business tends to rest on standard designs, procurement scale, repeatable systems and fast site turnover. A higher value business leans more on design, customisation, specification, customer experience and location.
Thousands of builders sit somewhere between the two. The point is not that one model is replacing the other. It is that there are several credible ways to grow a building business, and they do not all show up in a build count.
Build volume versus contract value
Build volume is the number of new home contracts a builder writes in a period. Contract value is the total dollar value of those contracts, and average contract value is that total divided by the number of contracts. When volume falls and value rises, the average contract climbs. That can reflect higher costs, a shift toward more expensive homes, or both. Separating the two is what shows whether a business is repricing or changing what it sells.
The Queensland panel did not move in one direction
The total result hides a lot of movement underneath. Some builders in the ranking grew strongly. Others wrote far fewer contracts.
A few of the steepest falls were not falls at all. As we reported in our look at the builders who moved hardest, some project home builders deliberately walked away from volume and moved into custom and high end work, with average contracts above three million dollars on a fraction of the build count.
The group that best captures the year sits between the risers and the fallers. These are builders who wrote fewer contracts and still booked more total value. Fewer jobs, bigger jobs.
That is the market shift happening inside individual businesses, one operator at a time.
A higher value customer changes how the business runs
Someone building a $350,000 home and someone building a $900,000 home usually expect different things.
The higher value client tends to put more weight on design, inclusions, personalisation, communication, energy performance and the overall build experience. That client is not necessarily easier to serve, or more profitable. It is a different proposition.
The shift reaches into every part of the business. Marketing, sales, estimating, procurement, staffing and supervision all look different when the average job is worth considerably more.
It reaches beyond the builder too. A market contracting more higher value homes creates different demand for cabinetry, stone, glazing, electrical, smart home products, landscaping and specialist trades.
Two markets could each build 10,000 homes and create very different work for the trades and suppliers behind them.
Healthy growth needs more than one measure
More revenue does not guarantee more profit. More homes do not guarantee a better business. And fewer contracts do not mean a business is going backwards.
One builder could cut volume deliberately and lift margin, reduce complexity and increase the value of each project. Another could grow volume by investing in systems and standardisation. A third could stay small and specialise in a profitable niche.
All three can be growing. Just not in the same way.
That is why a build count on its own is a blunt instrument. Contract value, margin, customer mix, productivity and cash flow each say something the number of homes cannot. They are the measures that sit underneath running a building business through a market like this one.
One year in one state is a case study, not a trend
The Queensland figures cover one financial year and one state. They do not prove that Australian residential construction has permanently shifted toward fewer, dearer homes.
They also sit alongside a detail worth keeping in view. Statewide dwelling approvals rose strongly over the same period, but almost all of that surge was attached dwellings. Detached houses, the core product of most builders in the ranking, barely moved.
If affordability improves and entry level buyers return as approvals convert to completions, the mix could shift back. If land and construction costs stay high, higher value work may keep a larger share of the market.
The trend over several years will say more than any single result.
The better question is what kind of business is being built
For decades, the industry scorecard has asked one question. How many homes did you build?
The Queensland data suggests a second question now matters just as much. What kind of business did that work build?
The state’s largest builders contracted 962 fewer homes in FY2025/26 and still lifted total contract value by 4.9%. That is not a simple story about an industry getting bigger or smaller.
It is a story about what the industry is building, and how builders are choosing to grow.
The Good Builder Take
Volume will always matter in a country with a housing shortage to close. But a build count on its own now hides as much as it shows.
The operators who read this year well will be the ones who know their margin per job, their customer mix and their cash position as clearly as they know their site numbers. Growth that can only be described in slabs poured is growth that is hard to manage.
The numbers behind the story
| Measure | FY2025/26 result |
|---|---|
| Contracted builds | 15,433, down from 16,395 (down 5.9%) |
| Total contract value | $8.33 billion, up 4.9% |
| Average contract value | $539,791, up 11.5% |
| Contracts under $400,000 | About one in eight builds, down from close to one in four |
| Contracts of $750,000 or more | Up 45% |
Source: our Top 100 Queensland Builders research, produced with data partner Australian Construction Data. Contracts counted on a QBCC home warranty basis. The Queensland figures are a case study and are not a measure of the national market.
The full ranking, with both years of builds and value for all 100 builders, the franchise networks and the regional approvals and land data, is in the Top 100 Queensland Builders report. For weekly analysis like this, subscribe to our newsletter or listen to The Good Builder Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
Frequently asked questions
Our Top 100 Queensland Builders research found the main driver was a change in the mix of homes being contracted. Contracts under $400,000 fell by more than half while contracts of $750,000 or more grew 45%, lifting total contract value 4.9% to $8.33 billion even as contracted builds fell from 16,395 to 15,433.
The average contract across the panel rose 11.5% to $539,791 in FY2025/26. The median builder lifted its average contract by 9.4%.
Only in part. Over the same window, input materials to house construction rose about 2.5% and the broader materials and labour measure rose around 4%. On our analysis, roughly two thirds of the rise in average contract value came from product mix and pricing rather than costs passed through.
Build volume is the number of contracts a builder writes. Contract value is the total dollar value of those contracts. A builder can write fewer contracts and still grow total value if the average job is worth more, which is what happened across Queensland’s top 100 builders in FY2025/26.
No. They cover the 100 largest residential builders in one state over one financial year and are best read as a case study. Land markets, customer mix and cost pressures differ across states, and one year of data does not establish a permanent trend.
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Last updated: September 2026. Figures from our Top 100 Queensland Builders FY2025/26 research.
General Information Only: This article is intended for general informational purposes and does not constitute legal or financial advice. The Good Builder is not a law firm or a licensed financial adviser. Readers should seek appropriate professional guidance before acting on any information contained herein.
Author: TGB Editorial
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