High Level Summary of Statistics Trend Last update: Friday, May 15, 2009
Tenure
The last quarter of a century has seen a significant change in housing tenure. In 1981, less than 40% of dwelling stock was owner occupied. By 1997, this had risen to over 60% and has continued upwards over the last ten years. Although there has been a similar pattern of change across much of Europe, the change has been particularly dramatic in Scotland, where the level of owner-occupation has increased by almost a third since the early 1980s.
From 2001 privately owned vacant dwellings are shown separately. The number of vacant dwellings is not known prior to March 2001 and so these are included within owner occupied and rented privately. A version of this table which apportions vacant private dwellings between private renting and owner occupation is available upon request.
View chart data
Source: Scottish Government Communities Analytical Services (Housing Statistics)
Mirroring changes in cultural attitudes toward home ownership, two structural factors have contributed to this shift: the introduction of the right to buy for public authority tenants in 1979 coupled with the decline of public authority new build, and the increased contribution of private sector building. In recent years, there has been some indication that the rising trend in relation to owner-occupation may be levelling out to some extent, while the private rented sector has shown consistent signs of growth since 2001 from about 7% to nearly 10% in 2008.
Further Information