High Level Summary of Statistics Trend Last update: Friday, May 15, 2009
New Housing Supply
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 has been an overall upward trend to just under 25,000 completions per year during the past few years, predominantly due to private sector new build which currently represents over 80% of all completions. The remainder of new build is mainly by housing associations.
Over the last few years new build starts have been running at about 27,000 per year, although a reduction has been seen in recent quarters making predictions of future housing supply less certain.
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Source: Scottish Government Communities Analytical Services (Housing Statistics)
However, the demand for home ownership has put severe pressure on the housing system in many areas, driving up house price inflation and restricting opportunities for sizeable sectors of the population. Increasing the supply of housing to respond to housing need and aspiration, and improving the responsiveness of the housing market more generally, is the most effective way of improving affordability in the medium to long term. The Scottish government's discussion document Firm foundations, highlights this commitment to increasing the capacity of the housing market to meet demand across all tenures. Total supply of new housing from public and private new building, rehabilitation and conversion to housing use is a Scottish government National Indicator reflecting the importance of a sufficient supply of housing to support the government's purpose.
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Source: Scottish Government Communities Analytical Services (Housing Statistics)
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