Last year proved slightly better than expected for two-plus-unit housing starts, with a 17.4% year-over-year increase in new construction, according to the National Association of Home Builders.
A quick glance at the National Multifamily Housing Council Top 25 Builders list confirms that 2025 was better than the prior year for many of the biggest construction firms in the apartment space. Nearly 80% of the developers and contractors on the most recent list saw starts increase in 2025.
“We were expecting the market to pick up a little, and it did,” Marc Padgett, president of Summit Contracting Group, told Multifamily Dive in emailed comments.
Still, not all signs were positive. For the first time since 2019, no developers started more than 8,000 units on the NMHC Top 25 Developers list. In the 2022 and 2023 rankings, the top firms produced more than 13,000 apartments. However, on the builders list, the top company started more than 10,000 units for the fifth straight year.
Development moves
Greystar once again ranked No. 1 on the 2026 developer list, though its starts declined by more than 1,000 units. JPI, which saw its starts increase by more than 4,000 units three years after its operating platform was bought by Sumitomo Forestry America, jumped from No. 18 to No. 2.
“Through detailed planning and advanced technology, JPI is transforming the way we develop,” JPI CEO Payton Mayes told Multifamily Dive in emailed comments.
Homebuilder D.R. Horton moved from No. 5 to No. 3 with more than 1,500 more starts. Alliance Residential jumped from No. 8 to No. 4 on the power of nearly 1,700 more starts, while Hillpointe fell from No. 4 to No. 5 even though its starts increased.
Middleburg Communities (No. 11), Harbor Group International (No. 16), LDG Development (No. 18), Willow Bridge Property Co. (No. 20), OHT Partners (No. 22) and Gilbane Development (No. 24) entered the list.
The biggest gainers in the top 25 were JPI (4,208 start increase), Harbor Group International (2,707 start increase), Trammell Crow Residential (1,781 start increase), Alliance Residential (1,662 start increase) and Middleburg Communities (1,589 start increase).
Middleburg CEO Chris Finlay attributed his firm’s growth to the infrastructure that it has spent years building, he told Multifamily Dive in emailed comments.
“We start with what we know works, lock that in early, and adapt only where it truly matters,” Finlay said. “That reduces friction in a way that’s hard to see from the outside—fewer late changes, tighter execution, more predictability—and volume is just the natural output of that.”
The largest declines were posted by Continental Properties Co. (1,453 fewer starts), Wood Partners (1,066 fewer starts), and Greystar (1,059 fewer starts).
Contractor shifts
In some cases, movement on the builder list mirrored that on the development for companies that build their own apartments, with companies like No. 5 JPI (3,984 additional starts) and No. 2 The NRP Group (1,861 additional units starts) making large jumps.
Despite the rise of certain developer-builders, Summitt Contracting Group, with 10,323 starts, held the top spot again, marking nine of the past 10 years as the No. 1 contractor. Though the Jacksonville, Florida-based firm didn’t notch huge gains, it did post better numbers than the year before.
“We attribute it to the market getting a little better than the prior year, and we did a little better than we projected,” Padgett said.
Greystar claimed the No. 3 spot with 50 additional starts and OHT Partners came in at No. 4, with a massive 3,490 additional apartments started. No. 6 Alliance Residential (1,662 additional starts) No. 11 Trammell Crow Residential (1,301 additional units) and No. 23 Bozzuto (1,381 additional starts) also posted large gains.
Mirroring the developer list, Wood Partners posted a large decline, with 1,066 fewer starts. Horizon Construction Group (567 fewer starts) and VCC (600 fewer starts) also saw their groundbreakings decline.
New entrants to the development list included pure contractors such as ARCO Construction Cos. (No. 10) and LandSouth Construction (No. 16). Developer-builders such as Middleburg (No. 13) and Bozzuto (No. 23) also joined the list.
While various companies will move in and out and up and down on the construction list this year, Padgett expects overall numbers to be roughly the same.
“For 2026, we are anticipating the same volume of starts,” he said. “We're hoping to see interest rates and fuel prices come back down, which would help make more projects feasible.”
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