Affordable housing supply

Affordable Housing Supply Programme statistics reflect the broader supply of affordable homes (i.e. for social rent, affordable rent and affordable home ownership), and include off the shelf purchases and rehabilitations as well as new builds. Latest statistics are available up to the end of June 2024.

The statistics reflect the number of affordable homes delivered that have received some form of government support through loans, grants or guarantees.

Approvals, starts and completions are all measured for the Affordable Housing Supply Programme. Approval is the point at which funding is granted. Starts are recorded when an on-site presence is established to progress site work. Completion measures when the units are delivered and ready for occupation.

Social Rent includes Housing Association Rent, Council House Rent as well as Homeowner Support Fund Rent.

Affordable Rent includes Mid-Market Rent (MMR), National Housing Trust (NHT) Rent as well as other programmes such as the Empty Homes Loan Fund (EHLF) and Rural Homes for Rent (RHfR).

Affordable Home Ownership includes Open Market Shared Equity (OMSE), New Supply Shared Equity (NSSE), Shared Ownership (LCHO) as well as other programmes such as Homeowner Support Fund Shared Equity.

As Chart 6 shows 6,966 affordable homes were approved, 6,422 affordable homes were started, 9,295 affordable homes were completed in the year to the end of June 2024.

Affordable housing supply approvals were 44% lower than the peak in approvals in June 2020. Starts were the lowest since the year to end of June 2015 and completions were the lowest since 2021.

Chart 6: Approvals in the year to end of June 2024 increased by 15% (906 homes) compared with the previous year, whereas starts (-10%; -734 homes) and completions decreased (-14%; -1,556 homes).

Charts 7 to 9 present information on trends in affordable housing supply by type. Most approvals (75%, 5,226 homes), starts (78%, 5,026 homes), and completions (73%, 6,826 homes) were for social rent in the year to the end of June 2024.

Comparing the year to the end of June 2024 to the previous year, there was an increase in the number of homes completed for affordable home ownership (2%, 25 homes) and decreases for social rent (-16%; -1,335 homes) and other affordable rent (-15%, -246 homes).

Chart 7: Affordable housing supply approvals by type, 2013 to 2023 (year to end of June).

Chart 8: Affordable housing supply starts by type, 2013 to 2023 (year to end of June).

Chart 9: Affordable housing supply completions by type, 2013 to 2023 (year to end of June).

Affordable housebuilding starts, approvals and completions are published on a quarterly basis. Comparisons of quarterly data should be made to the corresponding quarter in a previous year as there have been no seasonal adjustments made to the data.

Table 1: Affordable housebuilding approvals, starts, and completions for the year to the end of June 2023 and the year to the end of June 2024, by quarter.

Table 1 shows approvals were lower in April to June 2024 (-2%, 15 homes) compared with the same period in 2023, starts and completions were also lower (-29%, 333 homes; -12%, -219 homes).

Quarterly affordable housing supply statistics are used to inform progress against Scottish Government affordable housing delivery targets, in which the ambition is to deliver 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, of which at least 70% will be for social rent and 10% will be in rural and island communities. So far, 22,743 affordable homes have been completed and counted towards the target. These completions consist of 17,289 (76%) homes for social rent, 3,219 (14%) for affordable rent, and 2,235 (10%) for affordable home ownership.

Timeseries data along with local authority breakdowns as well as further detail on affordable housing supply are contained in the supporting Excel tables. The Scottish Government Affordable Housing Supply Programme policy area webpages also include annual Out-Turn Reports, which provide further detailed programme information for each financial year.