The result is an improvement on its fourth ranking in the year prior.

MJH Group managing director Andrew Helmers said the company's achievement to move into the top three builders in the category in Australia was testament to the hard work of its staff.

"Our goal has always been to be best at what we do. By staying true to our goal more people are choosing to build their home with us, which we are very grateful for," he said.

Mr Helmers said MJH had responded quickly to COVID-19 and adapted with digital opportunities which resonated with the customers. The company is the largest builder of detached houses in NSW with 1604 houses, up 35 homes from last year.

The HIA-Colorbond® steel Housing 100 Report found that the largest 100 residential builders had increased their share of the new home building market from 35 per cent to 40 per cent.

This group accounted for 68 per cent of the detached homes built in Australia in 2019/20 and increased revenue earned from home construction by 13.2 per cent to $24.097 billion in 2019/20.

The report also noted the pandemic's effect on the industry.

"At no other time in the history of this report have these businesses been faced with the risk of being forced to stop building. The industry was very fortunate to be able to continue to build new homes through the COVID shock," it said.

"With rapid changes to accepted worksite practices, the industry avoided the most severe restrictions."

The report said that new housing starts at the end of the 2020 financial year were projects initiated prior to the emergence of the COVID restrictions in March.

"The impact of this shock and the subsequent HomeBuilder program will evolve in 2021 and 2022," it said.

The HIA said that the pandemic "shock" had compounded what was already a difficult year in 2018/19.

"A slowing in population growth and a bank imposed credit squeeze caused one of the sharpest corrections in home building on record, with the number of new housing starts falling from over 220,000 in 2018/19 to an estimated 169,000 in 2019/20," it said.

The market share of the Housing 100 builders increased from 35 per cent in 2018/19 to 40 per cent in 2019/20.

"This is the highest market share for the largest 100 home builders since 2013/14 and is consistent with previous trends where volume home builders are able to gain market share in a contracting market. This also suggests that smaller builders, particularly those outside of the largest 100 home builders, are experiencing a disproportionate share of this market contraction," the report said.

Despite a "cooling market", the HIA report said the number of new home starts by the nation's largest 100 builders rose from 67,694 to 69,459.

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