CIH Scotland says fall is due to rising build costs and an underfunded affordable housing programme
Housebuilding starts and completions have plummeted in Scotland, official figures show.
A total of 19,827 homes were completed and 14,768 started in the year to 30 September. This is down 10% and 12% respectively compared to the same period the previous year, according to Scottish government statistics.
Excluding pandemic-hit 2020, private sector completions fell to the lowest level since 2018 and social housing completions dropped to their lowest since 2017.
Callum Chomczuk, national director at Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) Scotland said: “The figures published today are unfortunately not a surprise and show the impact of the rising costs of construction and an underfunding of Scotland affordable housing supply programme.”
The figures follow a year in which the Scottish parliament and 13 councils declared a ‘housing emergency’. This followed a £200m cut to Scotland’s affordable housing budget for this year.
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Earlier this month, the John Swinney-led Scottish government announced a £200m increase in the affordable housing budget, effectively restoring the grant funding. However, the CIH and others have pointed out the figure of £768m for 2025/26 is still less in real terms than the budget for 2023/24.
Chomczuk said: “These [housebuilding] figures make it clear that addressing the housing emergency must be a long-term priority and can’t be addressed in one year.
“This must be the start of a long-term and cross-party consensus on funding and building social and affordable housing, so everyone has a safe affordable home to live in.”
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