In the late 1950s five Saarelainen brothers started to build log homes in the town of Lieksa, in Eastern Finland. Soon the inventive quintet found themselves creating one of the first industrial log house production plants. The millennium-old technology of wooden log construction had been reverted.

Using 20th century know-how, they succeeded in adjusting the traditional building style to modern living needs. Within less than 30 years, Honka expanded its position with respect to other rivals on the market to become national market leader in the log house segment, convincing proof of the quality of Honka genuine wooden homes.

In time the domestic markets turned into international sales. At the start of the1970s Honka began to export log houses to Japan. In order to support the expansion financially, Honka listed in Helsinki stock market  in 1983. In 1986 The sales grew and exceeded the mile stone of 100 million Finnish Marks (16,800,000 Euro). By the end of the decade the annual sales total went over 200 million Marks.

In the 1990's Honka really invested in export and founded subsidiaries in Japan, Germany, France and the USA. Also, Honka introduced new technologies and log types.In the 21st century, Honka has become a valuable brand gaining an increasing number of enthusiastic fans in home building. With more than 70,000 log houses built world-wide, Honka is the largest genuine wooden house producer in the world.