Affordable Housing Supply Programme

Affordable Housing Supply Programme statistics reflect the broader supply of affordable homes (i.e. for social rent, affordable rent and affordable home ownership), and include off the shelf purchases and rehabilitations as well as new builds. Latest statistics are available up to the end of 2024-25 and include all homes supported through Scottish Government’s Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP).

The statistics reflect the number of affordable homes delivered that have received some form of government support through loans, grants or guarantees.

Approvals, starts and completions are all measured for the AHSP. Approval is the point at which funding is granted. Starts are recorded when an on-site presence is established to progress site work. Completions are measured when all homes on the site are delivered and ready for occupation – this differs to how the all sector housebuilding completions are reported, which reports unit by unit. Therefore, there will be times where the AHSP programme will report completions in a local authority when the completions data reported in the social sector new housebuilding will be 0 – this is because they will be reported in previous quarters.

Social Rent includes Housing Association Rent, Council House Rent as well as Homeowner Support Fund Rent.

Affordable Rent includes Mid-Market Rent (MMR), National Housing Trust (NHT) Rent as well as other programmes such as the Empty Homes Loan Fund (EHLF) and Rural Homes for Rent (RHfR).

Affordable Home Ownership includes Open Market Shared Equity (OMSE), New Supply Shared Equity (NSSE), Shared Ownership (LCHO) as well as other programmes such as Homeowner Support Fund Shared Equity.

In 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.

As Chart 6 shows, there was decreases in affordable housing supply approvals (-2167, -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 peak in approvals in 2019-20. Starts were the lowest since 2011-12 and completions were the lowest since 2015-16 excluding 2020-21 (where Covid-19 impacted housebuilding).

Chart 6: Affordable Housing Supply Programme, housing completions, starts, and approvals, 2010-11 to 2024-25 

Charts 7 to 9 present information on trends in affordable housing supply by type. Most approvals (87%, 4,171 homes), starts (83%, 4,484 homes), and completions (80%, 5,972 homes) were for social rent in 2024-25.

Comparing 2024-25 to the previous financial year, there was a decrease in the number of homes completed for affordable home ownership (-78%, -1,034 homes), other affordable rent (-13%, -173 homes) and social rent (-13%; -864 homes).

Chart 7: Affordable housing supply approvals by type, 2012-13 to 2024-25

Chart 8: Affordable housing supply starts by type, 2012-13 to 2024-25

Chart 9: Affordable housing supply completions by type, 2012-13 to 2024-25

Affordable housing starts, approvals and completions are published on a quarterly basis. Comparisons of quarterly data should be made to the corresponding quarter in a previous financial year as there have been no seasonal adjustments made to the data.

Table 1: Affordable housing approvals, starts, and completions, by quarter, for 2023-24 and 2024-25

Table 1 shows approvals, starts and completions were lower in January to March 2024-25 compared with the same period in 2023-24. Starts decreased by 45% (-1,443 homes), approvals decreased by 44% (-1,665 homes) and completions decreased by 27% (-887 homes).

Quarterly affordable housing supply statistics are used to inform progress against Scottish Government affordable housing delivery targets, in which the ambition is 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. So far, 28,537 affordable homes have been completed and counted 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.

Timeseries data along with local authority breakdowns as well as further detail on affordable housing supply are contained in the supporting Excel tables.

The Scottish Government Affordable Housing Supply Programme policy area webpages also include annual Out-Turn Reports, which provide further detailed programme information for each financial year.