Housing Statistics for Scotland, Quarterly Update - November 2014

New build housing - Private sector

The private sector is the biggest contributor to overall house building, accounting for 75% of all homes completed in the 12 months to end June 2014.

Chart 5: Annual private sector new build starts and completions, year to end June, 2005 to 2014

Chart 6: Quarterly new build starts and completions (Private Sector), since 2004

Historic Trends

Between 2005 and 2008 the number of homes started and completed both remained fairly steady at around 20,000-24,000 each year. The private sector was hit particularly hard by the recession and the number of homes started and completed dropped to about 10,000 a year from 2010 before recovering slightly in the year to end June 2014.

Latest data

Between April and June 2014, 3,676 new private sector homes were completed. This is much higher (46%) than the number completed in the same quarter the previous year and also well above (44%) the quarterly average since 2011.

Meanwhile there were 3,026 private sector starts between April and June 2014 - up by 8% on the same quarter the previous year, 13% above the quarterly average since 2011 and the second highest number since April to June 2008 (the highest since April to June 2008 being recorded in January to March 2014). Over the longer term these starts should feed through to completions - further information is provided in the Notes section of this document.

The latest year's figures show increases - starts by 16% to 11,671 and completions by 23% to 11,879 although both remain well below pre-recession levels.

In September 2013 the Scottish Government introduced the Help to Buy (Scotland) scheme which aims to support buyers purchasing a new build home and to stimulate the house building industry.

Sub-national data

Map B shows the rates of private sector led new build completions in each local authority for the year to end June 2014.

The highest completion rates were found across much of the north of the country (Aberdeenshire, Moray, Eilean Siar and Highland) along with Midlothian and East Renfrewshire. The lowest rates meanwhile were found in Glasgow City, Dundee City and North Ayrshire.

Map B