Social housing stock

Housing stock by tenure is published up to March 2024. However, more recent data on social housing stock is available, up to March 2025.

There were 638,065 homes in the social rented sector as of 31st March 2025, a 1% (5,035) increase compared with the previous year. There were 327,746 local authority dwellings and 310,319 housing association dwellings as of 31st March 2025.

As of March 2025, local authorities own 51% of the social sector stock, with housing associations owning 49%. This compares local authorities owning 82% in March 1999. Total social sector stock has been increasing steadily since March 2018 while the proportion of housing association to local authority dwellings has stayed roughly the same. This is illustrated in Chart 4.

Local authority housing numbers declined from the 1980s but began stabilising in the 2010s. The drops in local authority housing stock since the 1980s can be explained by three main factors: tenants buying homes under Right to Buy, stock transfers to Registered Social Landlords (RSLs), and a decrease in new local authority builds. These factors have become less significant over time, particularly as the Housing (Scotland) Act 2014, included a provision to end Right to Buy for new applications in July 2016. Further details of previous trends in Right to Buy sales are available in the Sales of Social Sector Housing Excel web tables.

Chart 4: Total social sector housing stock, 1998-99 to 2024-25, Scotland

Notes on social housing stock data:

1. Further detailed figures are available in the Social Housing Stock Excel web tables.