Scottish House Condition Survey Local Authority Tables 2022-2024

Housing Stock Attributes

The age of construction and built form of a dwelling has consequences for energy performance, improvement potential, affordability of heating, and housing conditions. At the same time, types of dwellings can differ in terms of the size of exposed areas with fewer exposed areas of wall, or shielding by dwellings above and below, leading to lower levels of heat loss than in buildings with fewer sheltered sides. Household stock attribute data demonstrates that Scottish housing is diverse and varies across local authorities. Such variations will be a factor in later statistics on energy efficiency and fuel poverty and should be borne in mind.

On average over the period 2022-2024, nearly three quarters of Scotland’s dwellings were built after 1945 (72%). However, this figure is as high as 93% in West Lothian and as low as 57% in Glasgow City and Edinburgh.

Glasgow City is the authority where households were most likely to live in flats (74%) rather than houses, followed by City of Edinburgh (62%). On the other hand, households in Orkney Islands (98%), Na h-Eileanan Siar (95%) and Shetland Islands (92%) were most likely to live in houses. This compares to, on average, 36% of Scottish households living in flats and 64% living in houses in 2022-2024.

Nationally, around half (50%) of households lived in dwellings with one or two bedrooms while the other half (50%) lived in dwellings with 3 or more bedrooms. Households in Glasgow City (32%) and Dundee City (38%) were least likely to have 3 or more bedrooms while those in Na h-Eileanan Siar (70%) and East Dunbartonshire (67%) were most likely.