Housing Statistics for Scotland Quarterly Update: New Housebuilding and Affordable Housing Supply to end December 2023

This statistical publication presents latest quarterly figures to end December 2023 on new housebuilding and Affordable Housing Supply, along with annual rates of new housebuilding and affordable housing supply per head of population, with comparisons to other UK countries.

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Quarterly comparisons

Overall, across all sectors, there were 3,859 starts and 5,391 completions in the last quarter of 2023. There were 3,126 starts and 4,086 private led completions. In the social sector there were 733 starts and 1,305 completions. Further breakdowns are in Tables 1 & 2, which show the number of quarterly starts and completions in 2022 and 2023.

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. Comparisons in Chart 4 and Chart 5 focus on quarterly comparisons between 2023 and 2022.

As Chart 4 shows, there were decreases in the number of housebuilding starts through the private sector (8% decrease; 254 fewer homes) and housing associations (16% decrease; 62 fewer homes) when comparing quarter 4 of 2023 to quarter 4 of 2022. Whereas local authority led starts increased by 9% (35 additional homes).

There were also quarterly decreases in completions led by the private sector (12% decrease, 582 fewer homes) and housing associations (35% decrease; 447 fewer homes) but a 28% increase in local authority led completions (105 additional homes). This is illustrated in Chart 5.

Table 1: Housebuilding starts for 2022 and 2023, by quarter

 Sector

Q1 Jan - Mar 2022

Q2 Apr - Jun 2022

Q3 Jul - Sep 2022

Q4 Oct - Dec 2022

Q1 Jan - Mar 2023

Q2 Apr - Jun 2023

Q3 Jul - Sep 2023

Q4 Oct - Dec 2023

Private led

3,750

4,776

4,104

3,380

2,922

3,586

3,118

3,126

Local Authority

804

724

440

376

348

243

190

411

Housing Assoc.

1,133

299

856

384

653

364

734

322

Social sector

1,937

1,023

1,296

760

1,001

607

924

733

All sector

5,687

5,799

5,400

4,140

3,923

4,193

4,042

3,859

Table 2: Housebuilding completions for 2022 and 2023, by quarter

 Sector

Q1 Jan - Mar 2022

Q2 Apr - Jun 2022

Q3 Jul - Sep 2022

Q4 Oct - Dec 2022

Q1 Jan - Mar 2023

Q2 Apr - Jun 2023

Q3 Jul - Sep 2023

Q4 Oct - Dec 2023

Private led

3,562

4,091

4,364

4,668

3,718

3,982

3,450

4,086

Local Authority

870

360

810

375

397

370

450

480

Housing Assoc.

1,115

897

1,309

1,272

1,538

608

1,088

825

Social sector

1,985

1,257

2,119

1,647

1,935

978

1,538

1,305

All sector

5,547

5,348

6,483

6,315

5,653

4,960

4,988

5,391

Chart 4: Local authority led starts were higher in the last quarter of 2023 compared with 2022, whereas private sector led starts and housing association starts were lower.

a bar chart comparing starts in each quarter in 2023 to the same quarter the previous year

Chart 5: Local authority led completions were higher in the last quarter of 2023 compared with 2022, whereas private sector led completions and housing association completions were lower.

a bar chart comparing completions for each quarter in 2023 to the same quarter in 2022

Timeseries data along with local authority breakdowns are contained in the supporting Excel tables.

Contact

housingstatistics@gov.scot

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