Housing Statistics for Scotland Quarterly Update: New Housebuilding and Affordable Housing Supply to end June 2026

Data and methodology

1. Data on local authority and private sector housebuilding are sourced from local authority administrative systems. Data on the Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP) are sourced from the Scottish Government's Housing and Regeneration Programme (HARP) system.
2. AHSP figures include Section 75 units that receive some form of government funding. Data are not available to estimate the number of affordable homes delivered without central government funding. Approaches to affordable housing delivery vary across local authorities, and some affordable housing units may therefore not be recorded as affordable housing in these statistics.
3. In general, for local authority and private sector housebuilding, starts should be recorded when foundations are laid, and completions should be recorded when a building inspector certifies a property as complete. Starts and completions are reported on a unit-by-unit basis each quarter rather than when an entire site begins or finishes. This differs from the AHSP, where completions are reported only once a whole site has been delivered. As a result, completions delivered through local authorities are generally reported earlier than those recorded through the AHSP.
4. Over the longer term, starts are often a strong indicator of future completions. However, short and medium-term trends may differ due to factors such as housing market conditions, the wider economy, access to finance, and construction timescales.
5. The time required to construct a new private dwelling varies according to factors such as property type and site size. The average time from the start of construction to completion of an entire site typically ranges from around 1.5 to 2.75 years. Individual homes, or groups of homes, may be completed sooner where parts of a site are finished ahead of the overall development.
6. Private sector construction activity includes homes built for private sale, as well as some homes that are subsequently used for affordable housing and self-build projects.
7. Figures are not seasonally adjusted. Comparisons are therefore made using 12-month periods with the same starting and ending point (for example, April to March 2026 compared with April to March 2025). When making comparisons between a quarter we advise you to use the corresponding quarter of the comparison year (for example Q1 2026 compared with Q1 2025.
8. Housebuilding activity recorded between January and June 2020 was affected by measures introduced to reduce the spread of COVID-19. From mid-March to late June 2020, non-essential construction activity stopped and homebuyers were advised to delay moving where possible. Housebuilding activity then resumed gradually through a phased restart.
9. For housing association new-build figures published before April 2018, approvals are used as a proxy for starts due to data quality issues within the historic starts series.
10. A small number of local authorities have estimated private-led new-build data due to delays in reporting. These are:

• East Dunbartonshire (from 2025 Q4)
• South Ayrshire (from 2026 Q1)
• Stirling (from 2021 Q4)

11. Figures for private-led starts and completions have been revised for:

• South Ayrshire (2025 Q4)
• East Dunbartonshire (2023 Q1 to 2025 Q3)

Further details, including the impact on national totals, are available in Tables R1a to R5c of the Supporting Charts and Tables Excel workbook.

12. As with previous publications:

• the estimates of private-led new build activity for local authorities with missing data are each based on an average of the preceding four quarters, with an adjustment made to account for different overall levels of construction activity seen in particular quarters, which is based on the aggregate trends from the local authorities who have provided data across the period in question.
• Highland starts data has been estimated since 2006 Q3, based on the completions data provided by the authority as an estimated level of contribution to national level new build housing starts. Glasgow private-led figures for the period Q2 2020 to Q1 2022 have been based on data provided by Glasgow Council for all-sector figures across this period, from which we have derived the private-led component by netting off housing association starts and completions based on separate social sector new build figures taken from HARP system. Since Q2 2022 starts and completions by sector are now based directly on the data provided.