Housing statistics 2017: key trends summary

New Housing Supply

Data on new housing supply informs National Indicator 38 (Increase the number of new homes) which is assessed as part of the Scotland Performs framework.

18,539 new houses were built, refurbished or converted in 2016-17, 571 homes (3%) more than in 2015-16. New housing supply remains well below pre-recession levels and is 33% below the 2007-08 figure of 27,594, however annual supply has increased by 3,629 homes (24%) since 2012-13.

New housing supply comprises the following elements:

new house building: houses completed by or for housing associations, local authorities or private developers for market sale, below market rent or low cost home ownership;

rehabilitation: 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 Supply Programme ( AHSP); and

conversion: net new dwellings created by conversion from non-housing to housing use or by alterations to existing dwellings in all tenures.

The supply of new housing increased by 571 homes (3%) between 2015-16 and 2016-17. There were 2,748 housing association new build completions in 2016-17, an increase of 428 homes or 18% on the previous year. Local authority new build completions totalled 1,143 homes, a marginal increase of 5 homes compared with 2015-16. A total of 13,187 homes were built by the private sector in 2016-17, a small decrease of 182 homes (1%) from the 13,369 homes built in 2015-16. The number of rehabilitations increased from 457 in 2015-16 to 599 in 2016-17, and the number of buildings converted to housing use also increased by 178 homes from 684 to 862. See Table 1 below and Chart 1.

Table 1: Components of new housing supply in Scotland

The components of housing supply within each local authority area for 2016-17 are shown in Chart 2. Together Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeenshire and Fife accounted for a over a third of Scotland's new housing supply.

The proportions of housing supply accounted for by each grouping vary by local authority. For example, in Glasgow 42% of the new supply was housing association homes and 32% was from the private led construction. The majority (76%) of the new supply in Edinburgh was from private sector new build with a further 12% from housing association new build and 10% from conversions. Private sector new build accounted for 90% of Inverclyde's new housing supply. West Lothian (23%) and Clackmannanshire (23%) had the highest proportions of their new supply as local authority new build housing.

Chart 2: Supply of new housing in Scotland, 2016-17

Link to Housing Supply tables: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/HSfS/NewHousingSupply