Housing Statistics for Scotland - New House Building

Ruchill housing

New House Building in Scotland

  • Historic trends in new build showed peaks in the early 1950s and late 1960s resulting primarily from programmes of post-war reconstruction and slum clearances.
  • From a high point of about 41,000-43,000 completions a year, mainly in the public sector, the level of new build fell during the early 80s to under 20,000 completions per year.
  • Since then, there was an overall upward trend which peaked in the year to end September 2005 at 25,702 completions. However, this trend has since reversed. The figure for the year to end September 2012 was 15,046, 41% below the peak in 2005.
  • The number of starts increased by 11% in the latest year (to 30 September 2012) although this reflects the particularly low level of starts recorded in Q4 of 2010. The latest quarter (2012 Q3) shows the number of starts decreased by 10% compared to the same quarter in 2011.
  • There were 958 new council houses started in the latest year (to 31st December 2012) and 1,096 were completed.

Local Authority Tables

  • All sectors starts and completions
    Quarterly, financial year and calendar year time series of starts and completions by all agencies, by local authority area - from 1996 quarter 2 to 2012 quarter 3 (July - September).
  • Private sector starts and completions
    Quarterly, financial year and calendar year time series of private sector starts and completions, by local authority area - from 1996 quarter 2 to 2012 quarter 3 (July - September).
  • Local authority starts and completions
    Quarterly, financial year and calendar year time series of local authority starts and completions, by local authority area - from 1996 quarter 2 to 2012 quarter 4 (October - December).
  • Housing association starts (approvals) and completions
    Quarterly, financial year and calendar year time series of housing association starts (approvals) and completions, by local authority area - from 1996 quarter 2 to 2012 quarter 4 (October - December).
  • Social sector starts and completions
    Quarterly, financial year and calendar year time series of local authority and housing association starts and completions, by local authority area - from 1996 quarter 2 to 2012 quarter 4 (October - December).
  • An explanatory note containing background information on these new build statistics is available.
  • Note: In all new build tables, starts and completions in the former New Towns are included in the appropriate local authority figures.

Scotland Tables

Scotland Tables

  • Summary tables of new house building in Scotland
    Quarterly time series data on Scottish starts and completions by sector from 1980 to 2012 Quarter 3 (July - September) for private new build, and to 2012 Quarter 4 (October - December) for social sector new build, plus annual figures on completions by sector, back to 1920.
  • Affordable Housing Supply Programme Summary Tables
    Financial year and quarterly time series tables of approvals and completions funded by the Affordable Housing Supply Programme (previously the Affordable Housing Investment Programme). These tables show new affordable housing provision through new build, off the shelf purchases and rehabilitations.
  • The Scottish Government's Innovation and Investment Fund will be the main new housing supply programme for 2011-12 aiming to allow all suppliers to build new affordable housing. Following bids to the fund, the first tranche of successful bids has been announced and details of awards can be found on the Innovation and Investment Fund web pages. This represents expected approvals through the Innovation and Investment Fund. The actual number of approvals will be published in the Official Statistics for new house building at the appropriate time in the series.
  • Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP) Out-turn Tables for 2011-12 provide background data to the Official Statistics on AHSP published in the Housing Statistics for Scotland publication. They are taken from the affordable housing out-turn report. The tables are based on management information and differ slightly from the official statistics due to statistical adjustments carried out on the latter to ensure consistency across different measures and across time. There are differences in the data extraction dates and statistical adjustments are made to figures received on the Devanaha development. Information on any adjustments to the management information for statistical purposes will be included in the explanatory notes and the footnotes to these statistical publications.

 

Supply of new housing in Scotland

Data on housing supply informs National Indicator 38 (Increase the number of new homes) and comprises the following elements:

  • new house building: houses completed by or for housing associations, local authorities or private developers for below market rent or low cost home ownership; houses completed for market sale by private developers.
  • refurbishment: houses acquired by housing associations and refurbished either for rent or low cost home ownership. Refurbishment of private dwellings funded wholly or partly through the Affordable Housing Investment Programme.
  • conversion: new dwellings created by conversion from non-housing to housing use.

Link to new housing supply table.

Background information on this indicator can be found on the Scotland Performs web pages.

Page updated: Monday, March 18, 2013