Housing Statistics for Scotland, 2022-23

The latest compendium annual housing statistics have been published today by Scotland’s Chief Statistician.

Total New Housing Supply (new build, rehabilitations, and net conversions)

• New housing supply increased by 10% (or 2,161 homes) in 2022-23, with 24,368 homes built compared to 22,207 in 2021-22. The highest level since the 2007-8 financial crisis.
• Of the total new housing supply, 98% (23,798 homes) were new builds, 0.5% (114 homes) were rehabilitations, and 1.9% (456 homes) were net conversions in 2022-23.
• Private sector new build completions increased by 12% (1,760 homes) in 2022-23 (16,840 homes) compared to 2021-22 (15,080 homes).
• The social housing sector showed a 6% (401 homes) increase in new build completions between 2021-22 (6,557 homes) and 2022-23 (6,958 homes). Housing associations saw a 30% increase (1,164 homes), while local authorities experienced a 28% decrease (763 homes) in completions.
• Rehabilitations of properties increased by 36% from 84 in 2021-22 to 114 in 2022-23.
• There was a 6% decrease (30 homes) in net new dwellings created by conversions in 2022-23 (456 homes) compared with 2021-22 (486 homes).
• Affordable homes completions increased by 7% (705 homes) in 2022-23 (10,462 homes) compared to the year before (9,757 homes). This was the highest annual completions figure since the start of the series in 2000.

Housing Stock by tenure

• As of 31st March 2022, there were 2.7 million dwellings estimated in Scotland. Of these, 61% were owner-occupied, 4% were vacant or second homes, 13% were privately rented or lived in rent-free, and 23% were social rented properties.

Social housing stock

• The total social sector housing stock of 626,928 dwellings as of 31st March 2023, compared with 618,559 dwellings in the previous year.
• Housing association stock has increased every year since 2016, reaching 303,782 dwellings as of end March 2023. This is a 2.1% increase compared with March 2022 and a 9.2% increase compared with March 2016.
• Local Authority Housing stock has seen annual increases since 2018-19, reaching 323,146 dwellings as of end March 2023. This is a 0.6% increase compared with 2021-22 and a 2.7% increase since 2018-19.
• Local authorities reported 11,534 units of vacant stock at end March 2023, a 1.4% increase compared with the previous year.
• In March 2023 there were 20,428 supported houses for older people and 29,982 supported houses for people with physical disabilities. There was a small decrease (1.3%) in supported housing for older people and an increase (6%) in housing for people with physical disabilities between March 2022 and March 2023

Local authority lettings, evictions, and housing list applications

• During 2022-23 there were 23,650 permanent local authority lettings made, a decrease of 970 lets (4%) compared to the previous year. Of all the local authority lettings made in 2022-23, 48% were to homeless households, 27% were to those on a housing waiting list, 22% were transfers to existing tenants, and 3% classified as other.
• There were 260 evictions and abandonments in 2022-23 relating to council tenants, an increase of 118% since 2021-22. The latest figure is 77% lower than pre-pandemic levels (2019-20). The majority (86%)) of these terminations were due to rent arrears as opposed to antisocial behaviour or other reasons, this percentage is higher than in 2021-22 (71%).
• As of 31st March 2023, 175,092 applications were recorded on local authority or common housing register housing lists. This was a 5% increase compared with March 2022 (8,019 more households). This is based on administrative data reported through Local Authority and Common Housing Register collections and does not include the 6 local authorities that have transferred all their housing stock to Registered Social Landlords.
• The 2022 Scottish Household Survey (SHS) estimates that there are a total of 100,000 (4%) households reporting to be on a housing list, with a further 10,000 (0.4%) households having applied for social housing using a choice based letting system or similar within the last year. Some caution is advised when considering this estimate, due to the slight under representation of rented sector households within the 2022 SHS sample, leading to an under estimation of total households on housing lists.

Local Authority licences

• As of 31st March 2023, there were a total of 15,434 houses in multiple occupation licences in force. Of the licences in force, 93% are accounted for by just six local authorities – Aberdeen City, Dundee City, City of Edinburgh, Fife, Glasgow City, and Stirling – all of which have cities in.

Local authority scheme of assistance grants

• In 2022-23 6,353 scheme of assistance grants were paid to householders, a 4% increase (or 242 more grants) than 2021-2022. Scheme of Assistance grants totalled £36.7 million, which is around £6 million more than in 2021-22.
• The majority of these were for disabled adaptions, 4,602 grants which is 6% more than the 2021-22 figure of 4,350. Disabled adaptation grants in 2022-23 totalled £21.7 million which is an increase on the 2021-22 figure of £17.6m.

Background

Commentary on more recent data on house building completions as well as house building starts and approvals can be found in the housing statistics quarterly update publications.

Read the full statistical publication.

Background information including Excel tables and explanatory information on data sources and quality can be found in the Housing Statistics webpages.

Official statistics are produced in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics.