Scottish Housing Market Review Q1 2023

9. Housing Starts & Completions

New build completions – all sectors

There were 22,905 new build completions across all sectors in Scotland in the year to end Q3 2022, an increase of 9.7% (2,023 homes) on the previous year, the highest annual figure to end September since 2008. This is outlined in Chart 9.1, which includes the breakdown of new build completions by sector. Meanwhile, there were 19,227 new build starts across all sectors in the year to end Q3 2022, down by 7.1% (1,470) relative to the Q3 average for 2016 – 2019.

Source: Scottish Government

Chart 9.2 outlines the growth in new build completions and starts for all sectors by region over the one year period to Q3 2022, relative to the year prior. New build completions increased for the majority of regions shown, with the largest increase seen in the Ayrshires, Dumfries and Galloway (+40.4%) and the only decrease found in the Clyde Valley (-7.6%). With respect to all sector new build starts, the picture was more varied by region, with the largest increase found in Tayside and Fife (+21.4%), whilst the largest decrease was found in the Ayrshires, Dumfries and Galloway (‑27.4%).

Source: Scottish Government

Affordable Housing Supply Programme

Chart 9.3 shows that the supply of affordable housing has increased since the restrictions on non-essential construction activity were eased in Q3 2020. 9,727 affordable housing completions were recorded over the one year to Q4 2022, an increase of 1.2% compared to the year prior. However, over the same period approvals have fallen by 22.1% to 6,554, whilst starts have decreased by 24.2% to 7,502. This potentially reflects the ongoing challenges with price inflation (as shown in Chart 10.3), materials and labour in the construction sector. (Source: SG).