In the June quarter of 2026, 902 construction companies entered external administration or had a controller appointed for the first time. That is well above the average of 659 a quarter from the second half of 2021 to the end of 2025, although below the peak of 938 in the June quarter 2025. Over the 2025–26 financial year the count reached 3,472, 3.4% fewer than the 3,596 of 2024–25, the first annual fall since the current industry coding began. Construction accounted for about a quarter of all companies entering administration for the first time, a share that has held close to steady since late 2024.
Each σ figure is APN’s certified reading for that condition, measured in standard deviations from its average. Construction Insolvency (21281) and Business Insolvency (21280) are measured against the September quarter 2021 to December quarter 2025, the period in which the industry coding of these counts is consistent; the June quarter 2026 construction count ranks at 85.0 against 20 quarters.
What the count measures
When a company can no longer pay its debts, it may enter external administration — voluntary administration, liquidation or a similar process — or a secured creditor may appoint a controller, such as a receiver, over its assets. ASIC publishes three insolvency series. The one used here counts each company once, in the period it first enters external administration or first has a controller appointed. A second series counts every appointment over a company, including later and transitional appointments, and a third counts the reports external administrators lodge. Counting companies at first entry avoids counting the same failure more than once, which makes it the clearest quarterly guide to how many companies are entering insolvency.
The count is a number of companies, not a rate. No count of construction companies is published on the same basis, so a rise can reflect a larger industry as well as more failures, and one corporate group with many related companies can move a quarter on its own.
Construction companies, quarter by quarter
Construction first entries rose from 237 in the September quarter 2021 to more than 800 a quarter by mid-2024, with falls in some quarters along the way. The count has been above 800 in eight of the nine quarters from the June quarter of 2024, peaking at 938 in the June quarter 2025. The two most recent quarters were 778 and 902.
Construction companies entering external administration or controller appointment for the first time, per quarter
Source: ASIC insolvency statistics, Series 1, industry division Construction, September quarter 2021 to June quarter 2026. The dotted line marks the average of 659 companies a quarter from the September quarter 2021 to the December quarter 2025. Latest quarter shown in gold.
The pace of increase has slowed. Compared with the same quarter a year earlier, first entries were higher in every quarter from the September quarter of 2022 to the June quarter of 2025, often by a third or more. Since then the year-on-year changes have been small: −4.1% in the September quarter of 2025, +0.2% in the December quarter, −6.4% in the March quarter of 2026 and −3.8% in the June quarter. The June quarter 2026 count was still 8.2% higher than two years earlier.
Why the comparison starts in 2021
ASIC records a company’s industry from the forms lodged in the course of an insolvency. In the first half of 2021 the way industry was coded on those forms changed, and companies moved between industries in the published counts: the share of first entries recorded under other services fell from between 35 and 41 per cent to between 10 and 18 per cent, while construction’s share rose. ASIC does not restate the earlier figures. Construction counts before the September quarter of 2021 are therefore not comparable with later ones, and the construction figures in this piece begin in that quarter.
The total across all industries is unaffected by the coding change, so it can be compared over a longer period. It shows how far the recent level sits from the years before the pandemic.
Companies entering external administration or controller appointment for the first time, per quarter, all industries and construction
Source: ASIC insolvency statistics, Series 1 and its predecessor Series 1A, September quarter 2013 to June quarter 2026. The all-industry total is comparable across the whole period. Construction is shown only from the September quarter 2021, when its industry coding becomes comparable.
Across all industries, 14,153 companies entered administration for the first time in 2025–26, fewer than the 14,722 in 2024–25 and 61% more than the average of 8,788 a year from 2013–14 to 2018–19. The total fell to its lowest point in the September quarter 2020, at 946 companies, and reached its highest in the December quarter 2025, at 3,857.
Construction’s share of the total
Construction companies made up 25.5% of all first entries in the June quarter of 2026. The share has averaged 25.9% since the September quarter of 2021, ranging from 21.7% in the September quarter 2021 to 31.5% in the September quarter 2023. From the December quarter of 2024 it has stayed between 24 and 26 per cent, so construction first entries have moved broadly in line with insolvencies across the rest of the economy over the past two years.
Construction share of companies entering external administration or controller appointment for the first time, %
Source: ASIC insolvency statistics, Series 1, September quarter 2021 to June quarter 2026; construction first entries as a share of first entries across all industries. The dotted line marks the average of 25.9% over the period shown.
Reading the count
Construction insolvencies rose for three years from the second half of 2021 and have since held at a higher level, above 800 companies in most quarters, without a further sustained increase. Construction’s share of all first entries has been steady, and across all industries the annual count eased slightly in 2025–26 while remaining well above the years before the pandemic. For readers following the building industry, the relevant comparison is with the period since 2021; earlier construction counts were recorded on a different industry coding. The figures describe how many companies have entered insolvency; they do not indicate how many will in future quarters.
The wider conditions facing builders, including construction costs and the pipeline of work, are set out in APN’s analysis of construction capacity.
Findings are presented on the basis of data and evidence alone.
