2025 ended with confirmation of a further drop in all-tenure new homes starts and completions.
Published in December, the quarterly housing statistics for the year ending in September 2025 revealed that 14,486 new builds were started in the year to end September 2025, down 5% on the previous year. 18,347 new homes were completed; a drop of 8% from last year.
Unpicking the statistics further, private sector starts were 3.2% lower than the previous year at 11,815 and were the lowest since the year to end September 2013, excluding 2020 when COVID-19 impacted on housebuilding. At 14,225, completions fell by 5% and were the lowest since year to end September 2018.
But it is the social sector which has seen the greatest reduction in housebuilding. Starts were down by 10% at 3,031 and were the lowest since housebuilding data started being collected in the year to end of September 1997. Completions stood at 4,122 homes, down by 15% and the lowest since the year to end September 2017.
This means that by September 2025, only 31,064 affordable homes have been completed towards the Scottish Government affordable housing delivery target of 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, of which at least 70% are to be for social rent and 10% are to be in rural and island communities. These completions consist of 24,112 (78%) homes for social rent, 4,345 (14%) for affordable rent, and 2,607 (8%) for affordable home ownership.
The Scottish Government Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Màiri McAllan, is aware that she needs to arrest the declining figures to end the national housing emergency and possibly to keep hold of her seat in the Holyrood elections in May. Her Housing Emergency Action Plan was published on 2 September 2025, along with a direction for notification of all planning applications for 10 or more houses, and so largely post-dates the latest statistics. Whether the next quarterly statistics, which will be published in March 2026, will show an uptick in starts and completions on the back of the plan, remains to be seen.
Perhaps the quarterly statistics should also now include details on progress being made on the determination of all notified housing applications. As at the start of 2026, 86* applications across Scotland had been notified to the Scottish Ministers pursuant to the September direction. Three applications have since been withdrawn; 21 have been granted and 7 refused, leaving 55 applications yet to be determined. The undetermined applications include applications from 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025, although some of the more elderly applications were determined between September and December 2025 which might suggest that the direction is starting to have the desired effect.
Further information on the time taken to determine housing applications can be found in our earlier blog.
* with thanks to Bruce Walker, Chair of Homes for Scotland’s National Planning Committee, for details on the notified applications
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