Housing Statistics 2020 & 2021: Key Trends Summary

Annual statistics up to 31 March 2021 on total new housing supply in Scotland across all sectors, along with information on various elements of local authority housing such as stock, lettings, house sales, evictions, housing lists, and housing for older people and people with disabilities.

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Affordable Housing Supply

The affordable housing supply figures for 2020-21 have been included in this section to show the contribution of affordable housing to new housing supply up to 2020-21, however note that these financial year based figures were first published in the Quarterly Housing Statistics update on 15th June 2021, and the most recent figures to end December 2021 were published in the Quarterly Housing Statistics update on 29th March 2022.

In 2020-21, there were 6,477 units completed through all Affordable Housing Supply Programme activity, a decrease of 2,819 units (30%) on the previous year. Approvals decreased by 5,003 units (39%) in the latest year to reach 7,883 in 2020-21, and starts decreased by 1,423 units (16%) to reach 10,149.

Affordable housing supply statistics reflect the number of affordable homes delivered that have received some form of government support through loans, grant or guarantees. The Scottish Government's Affordable Housing Supply Programme funds housing for social rent, affordable rent and affordable home ownership. The Programme funds both new build activity and other activity to increase affordable housing supply, for example off the shelf purchases, open market shared equity (OMSE), rehabilitations and support provided to home owners through the Home Ownership Support Fund (mortgage to rent and mortgage to shared equity).

The number of units provided through the Affordable Housing Supply programme are illustrated in the charts below. Approvals are measured when funding approval is granted for all dwellings on a site. Completions are recorded when all dwellings on a site are completed.

Chart 4 shows that in 2020-21 there were 6,447 units completed in total - this is down by 30% compared to the 9,296 completions in the previous year, with activity levels affected by the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The majority (73%) of these were for social rent, 14% were for affordable rent and the remaining 13% were for affordable home ownership.

Chart 4: 6,447 affordable housing supply units were completed in 2020-21, which is down by 30% on the year before due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chart 4: A bar chart showing affordable housing supply completions, in which 6,447 affordable housing supply units were completed in 2020-21, which is down by 30% on the year before due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic

Chart 5 shows that in 2020-21, 7,883 units were approved, representing a decrease of 39% from the previous year. Of those, 78% were for social rent, 11% were for affordable rent, and 11% were for affordable home ownership.

Chart 5: Of the 7,883 affordable housing supply units approved in 2020-21, 78% were for social rent
Chart 5: A bar chart showing affordable housing supply completions, in which of the 7,883 affordable housing supply units approved in 2020-21, 78% were for social rent

Since 2009-10, data on AHSP site starts has also been recorded. There were 10,149 starts in 2020-21 which was down 16% from 12,045 starts in 2019-20.

Further detailed figures are available in the Affordable Housing Supply Excel webtables, along with the Affordable Housing Supply Programme Open Data tables.

Latest commentary and charts on Affordable Housing Supply Programme activity to end December 2021, including comparisons to other UK countries, is available in the Housing Statistics for Scotland Quarterly Update March 2022 publication.

The latest published quarterly figures to end December 2021 show that the total number of affordable homes completed in the 12 months to end December 2021 was 9,211. This is an increase of 35% (2,412 homes) on the 6,799 affordable homes completed in the previous year. The total number of homes approved in the 12 months to end December 2021 was 8,398. This is a decrease of 17% (1,763 homes) on the 10,161 homes approved in the previous year.

Financial Year Local authority level figures are published separately in Scottish Government Affordable Housing Supply Programme Out-Turn Reports.

Contact

Email: Housing_Statistics_Inbox@gov.scot

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