Housing statistics for Scotland quarterly update: June 2017

New Build Housing - Private-led Housing

The private sector is the biggest contributor to overall house building, accounting for more than three-quarters (76%) of all homes completed in the 12 months to end December 2016.

Figures on private sector new build completions for the City of Edinburgh have been estimated from 2015 Quarter 4 onwards due to quality concerns of data derived from building completion certificates. Estimates for Edinburgh have instead been based on private new build house sales data from Registers of Scotland, with further assumptions on self-builds and private sector led section 75 completions which are not captured within this data source. The estimates for Edinburgh are being investigated further and are subject to change in future publications.

Chart 5: Annual private sector led new build starts and completions, years to end December, 2006 to 2016

Chart 6: Quarterly new build starts and completions (private-led), since 2006

Trends over the last ten years

Between 2006 and 2007 (years to end December) the number of private sector homes started were around 20,000 to 24,000 while completions were around 21,000 to 22,000. Private sector led new build housing was hit particularly hard by the recession. The number of homes completed dropped steeply throughout 2008 then continued to decrease more gradually to under 10,000 in 2011 and 2012. Since then the number of homes completed has increased overall, bringing completions through the year to over 12,000 in the years ending December 2014 and 2015, increasing to just under 12,600 in 2016.

In September 2013 the Scottish Government introduced the Help to Buy (Scotland) scheme which has aimed to support buyers purchasing a new build home and to stimulate the house building industry. Following this, the Help to Buy (Scotland) Affordable New Build and Help to Buy (Scotland) Smaller Developers schemes were launched on 21 January 2016. Further information on the schemes, along with monitoring information setting out numbers of sales, is available at http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Built-Environment/Housing/BuyingSelling/help-to-buy.

Trends to end December 2016

Between October and December 2016, 3,546 private sector led homes were completed; 15 homes less (0% change) on the same quarter in 2015 (see Chart 6). This brings the total for the year to end December 2016 to 12,576, which is 2% (203 homes) more than the 12,373 completions in the previous year.

Meanwhile there were 2,648 private sector led starts between October and December 2016, up 5% on the same quarter in 2015. This brings the total for the year ending December 2016 to 11,896, which is 8% (1,070 homes) less than the 12,966 starts in the previous year.

Sub-national figures for the year to end December 2016

Map B shows the rates per 10,000 head of population of private sector led new build completions in each local authority for the year to end December 2016.

The highest completion rates have been in Midlothian, East Lothian, Aberdeenshire, Perth & Kinross, and Renfrewshire. The lowest rates meanwhile, have been in Glasgow City, Angus, West Dunbartonshire, North Lanarkshire, and Dundee City.

Map B: New build housing - private sector completions: rates per 10,000 population, year to end December 2016