Housing Statistics 2020 & 2021: Key Trends Summary

Annual statistics up to 31 March 2021 on total new housing supply in Scotland across all sectors, along with information on various elements of local authority housing such as stock, lettings, house sales, evictions, housing lists, and housing for older people and people with disabilities.


New Housing Supply

15,360 new houses were built, refurbished or converted in 2020-21, 7,687 homes (33%) fewer than in 2019-20. This is the first annual fall since 2012-13, and is the lowest figure recorded since 2012-13, reflecting the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on housebuilding. Before the pandemic, new housing supply had reached its highest point since the financial crisis in 2008, with 23,047 new homes built, refurbished, or converted in 2019-20. This was, however, 16% below the 27,594 new supply in 2007-08.

New housing supply comprises the following elements:

  • new house building: houses completed by or for housing associations, local authorities or private developers for market sale, below market rent or low cost home ownership;
  • rehabilitation: houses acquired by housing associations and refurbished either for rent or low cost home ownership. Refurbishment of private dwellings funded wholly or partly through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP); and
  • conversion: net new dwellings created by conversion from non-housing to housing use or by alterations to existing dwellings in all tenures.

Note that this measure of new housing supply doesn't take into account any dwellings removed from the housing stock through demolitions. Annual figures on demolitions are published in the Conversions and Demolitions Excel webtables. However these demolitions figures are not comprehensive and we advise that they should be considered as a minimum level of demolition activity in Scotland. This is due to local authorities differing in their ability to provide information on demolitions across tenures other than for local authority housing stock.

The total supply of new housing decreased by 7,687 homes (33%) between 2019-20 and 2020-21.

As reported on in previous quarterly housing statistics releases, there were 2,364 housing association new build completions in 2020-21, a decrease of 1,840 homes or 44% on the previous year. Local authority new build completions totalled 1,411 homes, a decrease of 57 homes (4%) compared with 2019-20.

A total of 11,023 homes were built by the private sector in 2020-21, a decrease of 5,344 homes (33%) from the 16,367 homes built in 2019-20.

The number of rehabilitations decreased from 333 in 2019-20 to 110 in 2020-21, and the net number of buildings converted to housing use decreased by 223 homes from 675 to 452 See Table 1 below and Chart 1 (page1).

Table 1: Components of new housing supply in Scotland
  Private new build Housing association new build Local authority new build Rehabilitation Net conversion Total housing supply
1996-97 17,492 2,963 241 936 1,244 22,876
1997-98 17,984 4,489 114 1,478 958 25,023
1998-99 18,784 1,753 120 344 958 21,959
1999-00 19,074 3,964 69 413 1,151 24,671
2000-01 18,195 3,804 112 971 1,103 24,185
2001-02 18,309 4,197 65 597 1,311 24,479
2002-03 18,938 3,715 94 514 1,305 24,566
2003-04 20,456 3,368 0 410 1,409 25,643
2004-05 22,449 4,024 0 677 1,336 28,486
2005-06 20,260 4,698 0 469 1,695 27,122
2006-07 21,043 3,231 6 437 1,702 26,419
2007-08 21,663 4,097 28 389 1,417 27,594
2008-09 16,111 4,577 336 427 923 22,374
2009-10 11,139 5,576 413 442 920 18,490
2010-11 10,713 5,111 614 297 591 17,326
2011-12 10,178 4,776 1,114 338 644 17,050
2012-13 9,892 3,244 963 291 550 14,940
2013-14 11,088 2,911 1,140 711 509 16,359
2014-15 12,565 3,064 1,116 224 644 17,613
2015-16 13,433 2,320 1,104 457 684 17,998
2016-17 13,424 2,754 1,018 599 791 18,586
2017-18 13,033 3,170 1,370 946 739 19,258
2018-19 15,789 4,086 1,392 316 665 22,248
2019-20 16,367 4,204 1,468 333 675 23,047
2020-21 11,023 2,364 1,411 110 452 15,360

The components of housing supply within each local authority area for 2020-21 are shown in Chart 2. Together Edinburgh, South Lanarkshire, Fife, Highland, Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, and Perth & Kinross accounted for almost half (49%) of Scotland's new housing supply.

The proportions of housing supply accounted for by each grouping vary by local authority. For example, in Glasgow 61% of the new supply was housing association homes, 14% from rehabilitation, and 24% from private led construction. The majority (75%) of the new supply in Edinburgh was from private sector new build with a further 5% from housing association new build and 12% from local authority new build. Private sector new build accounted for 100% of Inverclyde's new housing supply. Moray (35%) had the highest proportions of their new supply as local authority new build housing.

Chart 2: Edinburgh, South Lanarkshire, Fife, Highland, Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, and Perth & Kinross accounted for almost half (49%) of Scotland's new housing supply in 2020-21
Chart 2 : A bar chart showing housing supply by type and local authority area, for which Edinburgh, South Lanarkshire, Fife, Highland, Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, and Perth & Kinross accounted for almost half (49%) of Scotland’s new housing supply in 2020-21

Further detailed figures are available in the Housing Supply Excel webtables.

Contact

Email: Housing_Statistics_Inbox@gov.scot

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