Housing statistics 2018: key trends summary

New Housing Supply

19,428 new houses were built, refurbished or converted in 2017-18, 745 homes (4%) more than in 2016-17. New housing supply remains well below pre-recession levels and is 30% below the 2007-08 figure of 27,594, however annual supply has increased by 4,488 homes (30%) since 2012-13.

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.

The supply of new housing increased by 745 homes (4%) between 2016-17 and 2017-18. There were 3,130 housing association new build completions in 2017-18, an increase of 382 homes or 14% on the previous year. Local authority new build completions totalled 1,499 homes, an increase of 381 homes (34%) compared with 2016-17. A total of 13,102 homes were built by the private sector in 2017-18, a decrease of 325 homes (2%) from the 13,427 homes built in 2016-17. The number of rehabilitations increased from 599 in 2016-17 to 958 in 2017-18, and the number of buildings converted to housing use decreased by 52 homes from 791 to 739. See Table 1 below and Chart 1 (page1).

Table 1: Components of new housing supply in Scotland

The components of housing supply within each local authority area for 2017-18 are shown in Chart 2. Together Edinburgh, Glasgow and Fife accounted for almost a third of Scotland’s new housing supply.

The proportions of housing supply accounted for by each grouping vary by local authority. For example, in Glasgow 42% of the new supply was housing association homes, 35% of supply related to rehabilitations, and 23% from private led construction. The majority (73%) of the new supply in Edinburgh was from private sector new build with a further 11% from housing association new build and 14% from conversions. Private sector new build accounted for 98% of East Renfrewshire’s new housing supply. Fife (29%) had the highest proportions of their new supply as local authority new build housing.

Chart 2: Supply of new housing in Scotland, 2017-18

Link to Housing Supply tables: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/HSfS/NewHousingSupply