100,000 social homes milestone masks fall in new build completions

Latest Quarterly Housing Statistics published today show that in the 12 months to June 2025, there were 18,869 new homes completed across all sectors – a 6% fall compared to the previous year. Housing starts also slipped by 3%, with 15,202 new builds beginning construction in the same period.

The private sector delivered 14,274 homes, while the social sector contributed 4,595 completions. For new starts, 12,247 were in the private sector and just 2,955 in the social sector.

Excluding the pandemic year of 2020, private sector completions were the lowest since 2018, while social sector completions fell to their lowest since 2017. Even more starkly, social sector starts dropped to their lowest level since data collection began in 1997.

Delivery through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP) also fell sharply. In the year to June 2025 there were:

• 4,680 approvals (down 33% year-on-year),
• 5,313 starts (down 22%), and
• 6,851 completions (down 27%).

These figures feed into the Scottish Government’s target of delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, with at least 70% for social rent and 10% in rural and island communities. By June 2025, 29,680 affordable homes had been completed towards that goal – 77% for social rent, 14% for mid-market rent, and 9% for affordable home ownership.

Social housing milestone

Despite the slowdown, the long-term impact of investment in affordable housing remains significant. Since 2007, the Scottish Government has supported the delivery of 140,346 affordable homes, including 100,064 for social rent.

Housing secretary Màiri McAllan welcomed the milestone, describing it as evidence of “strong commitment to supporting affordable housing across Scotland”.

She said: “Social homes passing 100,000 is a demonstration of our strong commitment to supporting affordable housing across Scotland. Social housing is a key cornerstone in our efforts to tackle the housing emergency and achieve our goal of eradicating child poverty. These numbers show that thousands of families have been provided with a warm, safe and affordable home.”

Recognising the current urgent need to improve delivery, the housing secretary called on public and private partners to work with government to ensure “everyone in Scotland has a place they can call home”.

She added: “However, demand is outstripping supply, and these latest quarterly statistics paint a stark picture of the challenges that the cost of living, inflation and Brexit have placed on the housing sector – not least construction inflation having reached an incredible 24% in recent years.

“That is why earlier this month I published an ambitious Housing Emergency Action Plan, backed by up to £4.9 billion of investment to deliver a major affordable housing programme. This will support around 36,000 affordable homes over the next four years, providing homes for up to 24,000 children. This is additional to the £808m we will spend this financial year to deliver around 8,000 affordable homes.”

The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) has called for urgent action and said the worrying trend underlines the huge scale of the country’s housing emergency.

It comes as the Scottish Parliament is today set to pass new housing laws aimed at tackling homelessness and introducing private rent controls.

Last week, SFHA joined CIH Scotland and Shelter Scotland to detail research showing that Scotland needs to build over 15,000 social and affordable homes per year to meet housing need across the next Parliament.

However, according to today’s statistics, the number of completed homes was just 6,851 - considerably under half the amount experts say is required.

SFHA chief executive, Richard Meade, said: “This is a desperate situation. Tackling the housing emergency, ending child poverty and improving Scotland’s public health record simply cannot be done without building far, far more social homes.

“Our research shows that we must build over 15,000 affordable homes a year – and we’re not even reaching halfway towards that. If political parties believe in a fairer, more just Scotland than this must be the first priority of the next Scottish Government. If we don’t take urgent action then we will never end the housing emergency, committing thousands of Scottish families to a bleak future.”

Shelter Scotland director, Alison Watson, added: “Once again, we are seeing the consequences of decades of underfunding and poor political choices in housing.

“These statistics expose that not enough homes are being built and that Scotland is failing to deliver the homes that were promised, and certainly not the homes that we need.

“The Scottish Government’s promise of 110k would need them to more than double the number of homes delivered each quarter - there is no sign that they have a plan to achieve this.

“And we know that even this target is woefully short of the number of homes we need to reduce homelessness. Independent research estimates we need a minimum of 15,693 just to help councils begin to end the housing emergency in their area.

“All of Scotland’s party leaders have the power to deliver social housing. Now is the time to commit to building the homes we know are needed every year throughout the next parliament.

“Any plan that does not include these homes is a plan for increasing homelessness, tearing communities apart, and denying children the chance to thrive.

“Only the public can put pressure on politicians to prioritise the housing we need. Scotland needs radical change to deliver more social housing, build hope, and build the Scotland we want to see.”