Key Points

New housebuilding by sector

•  There were 19,797 homes built (completed) and 15,050 new builds started in the year to end December 2024. Completions (-1,441; -7%) and starts (-1,538; -9%) were lower than the previous year.
• The private sector built 15,066 homes and started 11,617 new builds in the year to the end of December 2024. Completions (-119; -1%) and starts (-1,605; -12%) were lower than the previous year.
• The social sector built 4,731 homes and started building 3,433 homes in the year to the end of December 2024. Completions (-1,322; -22%) were lower than the previous year and starts (67; 2%) were higher than the previous year.

• Looking at years to end December and excluding 2020 (where Covid-19 impacted housebuilding), private sector completions were the lowest since the year to the end of December 2017 and starts the lowest since the year to the end of December 2013. In the social sector, completions were the lowest since the year to the end of December 2017 and starts were higher than the previous year.

Affordable housing supply programme

• In the year to the end of December 2024, there were 6,440 approvals, 6,501 starts, and 8,180 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 was an increase in affordable housing supply approvals (249, 4%) and starts (254, 4%), and a decrease in completions (-1736, -18%) in the year to the end of December 2024 compared with the previous year.
• Affordable housing supply approvals were 48% lower than the most recent peak in approvals of 12,478 in the 12 months to December 2018, starts were 41% lower than the recent peak of 11,027 in 12 months to December 2019 and completions were 20% lower than the recent peak of 10,177 in 12 months to December 2022.
• 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 December 2024, 26,039 affordable homes have been completed towards the target. These completions consist of 19,945 (77%) homes for social rent, 3,644 (14%) for affordable rent, and 2,450 (9%) for affordable home ownership.