Housing statistics quarterly update: December 2021

2. Delays to new housebuilding statistics due to COVID-19, and estimates and revisions made for a small number of authorities

The Housing Statistics for Scotland Quarterly Update as at December would usually include an update on private-led and all-sector new house building starts and completions to end June, with more recent figures on social sector new builds to end September. However due to COVID-19 related delays in new build data provision last year, this publication includes figures on private-led and all-sector new house building starts and completions only up to end December 2020, with more recent figures on social sector new builds only up to end March 2021.

Given these delays in the reporting of new housebuilding trends, separate figures from the UK House Price Index on new build sales transactions are provided in Section 5 as an alternative measure of private-led new housebuilding activity in Scotland over the more recent period to end July 2021.

We are working with local authorities to address the current 6 month delay to the new housebuilding data reporting periods caused by COVID-19 related delays in new build data provision, with further details to follow as soon as these are available.^[1]

In addition to these delays in provision of data, the latest private-led and all-sector new housebuilding figures contain some estimates for a small number of authorities, and some revisions have been made to previously published figures. Further information on this is set out in the Notes Section (see Section 8).