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Sumitomo Forestry Australia has been revealed as Australia’s largest home building group in the 2025/26 HIA Housing 100. The HIA Housing 100 ranks Australia’s largest 100 residential builders based on the number of homes commenced each year. Source: Timberbiz Sumitomo Forestry Australia (Henley, Wisdom, Scott Park Group, Metricon) recorded 8,038 new home starts in 2025/26 across these four Australian home building businesses. The result follows Sumitomo Forestry’s acquisition of Metricon and brings together some of Australia’s largest and most established home building businesses within one group. “Metricon had held the number one position on the Housing 100 for the previous decade, making this a new name at the top of the list as the Housing 100 enters a new decade,” HIA Chief Economist Tim Reardon said. “ABN Group was Australia’s second largest home builder with 3,764 starts, while NEX Building Group moved from fourth to third with 3,585 starts.” The consolidation of Metricon and Henley, two of the top ten builders last year, within Sumitomo Forestry Australia also saw Summit Homes enter the top ten for the first time, continuing its rise from 15th in 2023/24. There were also some significant movers further down the Housing 100. Homecorp Constructions moved from 31st to 13th, while Hutchies moved from 14th to eighth. Parkview Constructions was Australia’s largest multi-unit builder, commencing 2,735 homes. Meriton Apartments was second with 2,324 starts, followed by Hutchies with 1,907. “The largest apartment builders have moved down the overall rankings this year as detached housing led the increase in new home construction,” Mr Reardon said. In total, the Housing 100 commenced 70,553 homes in 2025/26, an increase of 9.4% from 64,481 in the previous year and the first time since 2021/22 that the total has exceeded 70,000 homes. Detached home starts increased by 11% to 52,058, semi-detached starts in-creased by 14% to 7,397, while multi-unit starts increased by just 1% to 11,098. The Housing 100 accounted for 35% of all new homes commenced in Australia in 2025/26. “These results show that Australia’s home builders responded to improving market conditions and increased the supply of new homes in 2025/26,” Mr Reardon said. “The concern is that the conditions which produced this increase have changed significantly during 2026. “New home sales strengthened through the second half of 2025 and into early 2026, providing builders with a pipeline of work that continued to translate into commencements throughout 2025/26. “Since then, the reversal of the 2025 interest rate cuts, weaker consumer confidence and changes to property investment taxation settings have seen new home sales fall,” he said. “There is always a lag between a new home sale and commencement of construction. This means the strong result recorded in this year’s Housing 100 reflects market condi-tions from earlier in the cycle, while the deterioration in sales during 2026 will increas-ingly weigh on commencements in 2027.” Mr Reardon said that underlying demand for housing remained exceptionally strong. Australia continued to have a shortage of homes, population growth remained strong and unemployment remained low. “The Housing 100 demonstrates that the industry has the capacity to increase the sup-ply of new homes when market conditions allow,” Mr Reardon said. “Australia cannot resolve the housing shortage unless governments lower the cost of delivering new homes and provide the stable investment and financing environment re-quired to sustain this increase in supply.” Key findings from the 2025/26 HIA Housing 100 include: The Housing 100 commenced 70,553 homes, up 9.4 % from 64,481 in 2024/25. Detached starts increased 11% to 52,058, semi-detached starts increased 14% to 7,397, and multi-unit starts increased 1% to 11,098. The Housing 100 accounted for 35% of Australia’s new home market. Sumitomo Forestry Australia ranked first with 8,038 starts, followed by ABN Group with 3,764 and NEX Building Group with 3,585. Parkview Constructions was the largest multi-unit builder with 2,735 starts. Homecorp Constructions recorded the largest move up the rankings, from 31st to 13th, while Hutchies moved from 14th to eighth.   To order copies of the full report please go to www.hia.com.au

The post Sumitomo Forestry Australia’s largest home building group appeared first on Timberbiz.

The Senate has made a political decision to allow the Improved Native Forest Management (INFM) Method, which credits carbon for reducing or ending timber harvesting in native forests, to stand. The vote reflects the environmental ideologies that drive Australian politics. The decision does not settle the question of the Method’s integrity, nor does it verify that the maths adds up. For more than a year, Forestry Australia has raised detailed technical concerns through multiple channels about how the INFM Method calculates carbon abatement. We have the analysis that supports those concerns and have offered to work constructively with government and stakeholders to resolve the problems. Our members include some of Australia’s foremost forest carbon experts. Their independent analysis identified material accounting concerns. None were addressed in the Senate debate, and none have yet been fixed. The maths and integrity of the INFM Method should have formed the basis of the decision, but the long-standing and highly emotive debate about native forest harvesting ultimately prevailed. The problem is that a politically convenient outcome, such as ending native forest timber harvesting, does not automatically create a genuine carbon credit. Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) are the currency of climate policy. Businesses buy them to meet obligations or offset emissions. Governments rely on them to help meet Australia’s emissions targets. Landholders and investors make long-term decisions based on their value. If an ACCU says one tonne of carbon abatement has occurred, the system must be able to demonstrate that one tonne really has occurred. The Greens announced their support for INFM under the headline “Real pollution cuts, not accounting tricks,” while simultaneously announcing opposition to a Bill intended to strengthen the governance, transparency and integrity of the ACCU scheme and announcing an intention to disallow a private land method that has been transparently developed through many years of co-design involving scientists, agricultural organisations, carbon practitioners, conservation organisations, governments and land managers. At the same time, they have supported an INFM Method that has lacked transparent pro-cess, was not developed with forestry experts and has material technical issues that re-main unanswered. The irony is difficult to miss. Poor-quality credits have consequences. If an ACCU overstates the carbon benefit achieved in a forest, a real tonne of emissions elsewhere in the economy may be offset by something less than a real tonne of abatement. Further, large volumes of inexpensive, over-credited ACCUs can also suppress the car-bon price and make it harder for genuinely additional projects, including new plantations, environmental plantings, farm forestry and landscape restoration, to attract in-vestment. These are investments Australia desperately needs. We should be designing carbon markets that help put more forests and trees into the landscape, improve the condition and resilience of existing forests and support land-holders willing to undertake genuine additional action. For that to happen, investors need confidence that an ACCU means what it says. The Senate vote is over, but the Government still has an opportunity to fix the INFM method before significant volumes of credits enter the market. Ultimately this debate should not be about whether someone supports timber harvesting, national parks, farmers, fossil fuel companies or any particular political party. It should come down to the very simple principle that one ACCU represents one genuine tonne of carbon abatement, that carbon methods are designed transparently and with independent expert verification, and that they meet this expectation before projects start. On INFM, Australia has not yet demonstrated that it does. Dr Michelle Freeman, President, Forestry Australia

The post Opinion: Dr Michelle Freeman – INFM is not a settled question appeared first on Timberbiz.

Comact, a global leader in high-performance OEM wood processing technologies, has announced the launch of Comact Cutting Solutions, bringing together Smith Sawmill Service, Oleson Saw Technology, Checkmate Precision Cutting Tools, and the proprietary BLADE brand under a common organizational identity. Customers will continue to work with these established brands as they do today, with each maintaining its unique identity, expertise, products, and customer relationships.

Comact Cutting Solutions was created to reflect the collaboration that already exists across these businesses. While each brand will continue to operate under its own name, customers will benefit from access to a broader range of products, expertise, and resources backed by Comact’s OEM knowledge of the complete sawmill.

“Bringing these businesses together within Comact Cutting Solutions reflects how we work with our customers: as one team focused on the performance of their entire cutting operation,” said Dustin Norris, Vice President of Comact Cutting Solutions. “Our expertise goes beyond the cutting tools themselves. We work alongside customers to address operational challenges and improve cutting performance, backed by Comact’s deep understanding of mill operations.”

The Comact Cutting Solutions portfolio includes circular saws, bandsaws, knives, guides, filing room equipment, consumables, and related products. The organization also partners with ISELI, a global leader in precision machinery and technology for professional filing room operations, and serves as the exclusive ISELI dealer in the United States.

Customers will continue to work with the same brands, companies, and teams they know today, with Comact Cutting Solutions bringing together complementary expertise, products, and resources – all backed by Comact’s OEM expertise. For more information about Comact Cutting Solutions, visit ComactCuttingSolutions.com.

Dustin Norris, Vice President of Comact Cutting Solutions

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The post COMACT UNITES CUTTING EXPERTISE THROUGH A PORTFOLIO OF ESTABLISHED BRANDS appeared first on International Forest Industries.