Key Points

New housebuilding by sector

• There were 19,288 homes built (completed) and 15,053 new builds started in 2024-25. Completions (-746; -4%) and starts (-1,906; -11%) were lower than the previous financial year.
• The private sector built 14,798 homes and started 11,902 new builds in 2024-25. Completions (+65; +0.4%) were similar to the previous financial year and starts (-1,551; -11.5%) were lower than the previous financial year.
• The social sector built 4,490 homes and started building 3,151 homes in 2024-25. Completions (-811; -15%) and starts (-355, -10%) were lower than the previous financial year.
• Looking at financial years to end March and excluding 2020-21 (where Covid-19 impacted housebuilding), private sector completions were similar to the previous financial year and starts the lowest since the 2012-13 financial year. In the social sector, completions were the lowest since 2016-17 and starts were the lowest since 2012-13.

Affordable Housing Supply Programme

• In the financial year 2024-25, there were 4,775 approvals, 5,424 starts, and 7,444 completions of affordable homes funded by the Scottish Governments Affordable Housing Supply Programme. This includes affordable homes for social rent, affordable rent, and affordable home ownership. They also include off the shelf purchases and rehabilitations as well as new builds.
• There were decreases in affordable housing supply approvals (-2,167, -31%), starts (-1,471, -21%), and completions (-2,071, -22%) in 2024-25 compared with the previous financial year.
• Affordable housing supply approvals were 63% lower than the most recent peak in approvals of 12,880 in 2019-20, starts were 55% lower than the recent peak of 12,039 in 2019-20 and completions were 29% lower than the recent peak of 10,466 in 2022-23.
• These statistics are used to inform progress against Scottish Government affordable housing delivery target to deliver 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, of which at least 70% will be for social rent and 10% will be in rural and island communities. By 2024-25, 28,537 affordable homes have been completed towards the target. These completions consist of 21,937 (77%) homes for social rent, 4,087 (14%) for affordable rent, and 2,513 (9%) for affordable home ownership.