Quarterly Housing Statistics in the year to end of December 2024

25th March 2025

An Accredited Official Statistics Publication for Scotland. There was a 9% decrease in all sector housebuilding starts and a 7% decrease in completions between 2023 and 2024 (year ending December)

In the 12 months ending December 2024, there were 19,797 homes built and 15,050 new builds started. All sector completions (-7%) and starts (-9%) were lower than the previous 12 months.

The private sector built 15,066 homes and the social sector built 4,731 homes. In terms of starts, building work on 11,617 was started by the private sector and 3,433 homes by the social sector.

Excluding 2020 (where Covid-19 impacted housebuilding) private sector led completions were the lowest since the year to end of December 2017 and starts the lowest since the year to end of December 2013. In the social sector completions were the lowest since the year to the end of December 2017 and starts were slightly higher than the previous year.

In terms of the Affordable Housing Supply Programme, in the year to the end of December 2024, there were 6,440 approvals, 6,501 starts, and 8,180 completions of affordable homes. The number of completions were down by 18% (-1,736 homes) compared to the year to end December 2023. However, approvals and starts increased by 4% (249 homes) and 4% (254 homes) between 2023 and 2024 (year ending December).

These statistics are used to inform progress against Scottish Government affordable housing delivery target 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. By December 2024, 26,039 affordable homes have been completed towards the target. These completions consist of 19,945 (77%) homes for social rent, 3,644 (14%) for affordable rent, and 2,450 (9%) for affordable home ownership.