Households by tenure

Chart 1: Number of households by housing tenure, 1999/2000 to 2024, Scotland

Note:

1. Underlying data can be sourced in Table 1.02 in the supporting documents.

The total number of households in Scotland increased from 2.18 million households in 1999 to 2.55 million households in 2024. Chart 1 shows how the number of households in the private rented, social rented, and owner-occupied households has changed over this period. Since 1999/2000:

• owner occupied households increased by 19% (+260,000 households)
• private rented households increased by 167% (+200,000 households)
• social rented households decreased by 12% (-80,000 households). This decrease will be mainly related to local authority housing stock decreasing from the 1980’s due to the Right to Buy initiative (ceased in 2017). Social housing stock decreased by 13% between 1999 and 2024), as illustrated in Chart 2.

When comparing households by housing tenure data, it is useful to consider trends in housing stock – this comparison for social and private rent is presented in Chart 2. There may be a combination of reasons why the household data is lower than housing stock (in particular for social rented households). Including any possible slight bias in the sample that are not accounted for in the weights and the fact that there will naturally be empty housing stock (so no households residing in the property) at any point in time:

• It is apparent from local authority empty (or void) housing stock data that there has been an increase in empty local authority stock between  2019 and 2024, with a decrease in 2025. This type of data is collected less frequently for housing associations. The  registered-social-landlords-empty-homes-at-28-february-2025-report-and-data.pdf, shows that 1.6% of homes were empty
• The 2022 SHS report noted caveats relating to a small tenure bias, with the private rented and social rented sectors slightly under-represented. Tenure results from Scotland’s Census 2022, published since then, indicate that owner occupation was slightly over-represented in SHS 2022 relative to the Census, with renting correspondingly under-represented. A similar pattern of bias may therefore also be present in the 2024 SHS results.

Chart 2: Number of properties and households in the social and private rented sector, 1999/2000 to 2024, Scotland

Notes:

1. Private rented stock as per the Scottish Landlord Register, mostly as per December each year. Data are note available in 2018 and 2019 due to data quality issues (Housing statistics: Scottish Landlord Register data - gov.scot)
2. Social rented stock as per administrative data collected from local authorities and housing associations. (Local authority total and vacant housing stock, Scotland, March 2024 - gov.scot)
3. Households as per Scottish Household Survey, data not available in 2020 and 2021 as the Covid-19 pandemic affected data collection.