Key Points

Housing stock by tenure

• As of 31st March 2023, there were 2.7 million dwellings estimated in Scotland. Of these, 60% were owner-occupied, 3.7% were vacant or second homes, 13.2% were privately rented or lived in rent-free, and 23% were social rented properties.

New Housing Supply (new build, rehabilitations, and net conversions)

• New housing supply was 20,364 in 2023-24, a decrease of 3,984 homes (-16.4%) since 2022-23. The majority of new housing supply in 2023-24 was new build (97.9%), with small proportions of rehabilitations (0.3%) and net conversions (1.8%).
• New build completions decreased by 16.1% from 23,778 in 2022-23 to 19,943 in 2023-24. Commentary on more recent data on house building completions as well as house building starts and approvals can be found in the housing statistics quarterly update publications.
• Rehabilitations of properties decreased by 50% from 114 in 2022-23 to 57 in 2023-24.
• There was a 20% decrease (-92 homes) in net new dwellings created by conversions in 2023-24 (364 homes) compared with 2022-23 (456 homes).

Owner occupied

• In 2023-24 6,038 local authority scheme of assistance grants were paid to householders, a 5% decrease (or 315 fewer grants) than 2022-2023. Scheme of Assistance grants totalled almost £37 million.
• The majority of these were for disabled adaptations, 4,194 grants which is 9% less than the 2022-23 figure of 4,602. Disabled adaptation grants in 2023-24 totalled £22.2 million which is an increase on the 2022-23 figure of £21.7m.

Private rented

• As of 31st March 2024, there were a total of 15,274 houses in multiple occupation licences in force, a decrease of 160 (1.0%) since the previous year.

Social rented

• The total social sector housing stock increased by 6,102, reaching 633,030 dwellings as of 31st March 2024, compared with 626,928 dwellings in the previous year. There were 325,477 local authority dwellings and 307,553 housing association dwellings as of 31st March 2024.
• In March 2024 there were 21,085 supported houses for older people and 29,813 supported houses for people with physical disabilities provided by local authorities. There was an increase (1.2%) in supported housing for older people and a decrease (-1.2%) in housing for people with physical disabilities between March 2023 and March 2024.
• During 2023-24 there were 25,423 permanent local authority lettings made, an increase of 1,773 lets (7.5%) compared to the previous year. Of all the local authority lettings made in 2023-24, 49% were to homeless households, 26% were to those on a housing waiting list, 21% were transfers to existing tenants, and 3% classified as other.
• There were 16,640 notices of eviction proceedings in 2023-24 relating to council tenants, an increase of 10.2% since 2022-23. The latest figure is 32.2% lower than pre-pandemic levels (2019-20). There were 561 proceedings resulting in evictions or abandonments in 2023-24, with the majority (91%) of these due to rent arrears as opposed to antisocial behaviour or other reasons, this percentage is higher than in 2022-23 (85%).
• As of 31st March 2024, 177,264 applications were recorded on 26 local authority or common housing register housing lists. This was a 1.2% increase compared with March 2023 (2,172 more households). It should be noted that people can apply to more than one local authority, and they also can apply for both council and Registered Social Landlords housing, leading to multiple counting on housing lists.