SECTOR body Homes for Scotland (HFS) has claimed Scotland is heading for a ‘housing catastrophe’ following the latest housing statistics which show continued declines in all-tenure housing starts and completions.
The figures show there were 17,336 homes completed and 14,999 homes started across all sectors in 2025, representing annual decreases of 13% and 6% respectively.
This continues a downward trend in housebuilding activity, with both private and social sectors experiencing significant reductions. Notably, private sector starts are at their lowest since 2013 and social sector starts at their lowest since records began.
HFS warned the situation is being exacerbated by a ‘chronic’ shortage of effective housing land. The findings of the organisation’s recent research on Scottish Land Supply identified a ‘critical’ shortfall in deliverable housing land across many local authority areas, which could see housing completions decline by a further 70% to 5,000 per annum by 2031.
The report concluded that constraints within the planning system and a lack of allocated, viable land are severely limiting the sector’s ability to build the all-tenure homes Scotland urgently needs.
Jane Wood, chief executive of HFS, said, “These latest figures confirm what our members are experiencing on the ground, a continued and worrying decline in the delivery of new homes across Scotland. Whilst the last six months of 2025 saw positive increases in approvals for the Affordable Housing Supply Programme, this is against an incredibly low bar in the context of one of the most challenging years in housing delivery where the affordable housing budget was cut by over 26% and saw over 1,800 affordable homes stalled.
“Today’s statistics should be of major concern to everyone and directly challenge the Scottish Government’s ambition to increase all-tenure housing delivery 10% year-on-year. Without urgent action from all parties in May’s election, today’s housing emergency risks becoming a national catastrophe.”
HFS stressed that reversing the downward trajectory is essential to meet housing need and support economic growth, the sustainability of local communities, and the transition to net zero.
Jane Wood added, “The consequences of inaction are clear: fewer homes, rising housing costs and increasing social inequality across the country. We need urgent intervention now to boost all-tenure housing supply or Scotland risks falling even further behind.”
The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) has warned Holyrood’s election candidates must make social housebuilding a political priority.
The stats show that affordable home building has fallen by 25%, despite a declared housing emergency. Annual decreases were reported for approvals (9% decrease), starts (15% decrease), and completions (25% decrease) of homes provided via the Affordable Housing Supply Programme between 2024 and 2025.
As of December 2025, 32,479 homes have been delivered towards the 110,000 affordable housing target by 2032.
Richard Meade, SFHA CEO said, “The freefall in affordable housebuilding across Scotland should serve yet another wake-up call to our politicians about the urgent need to address the national housing emergency. The consequences of this crisis are devastating. It is simply unacceptable in modern-day Scotland that over 10,000 children are growing up in temporary accommodation whilst we’re seeing record lows in affordable housing being built. This is untenable.
“Without a radical and credible plan to build more social homes then we will never truly address the challenges we face in our economy, health, education or community wellbeing. Safe, warm, affordable homes for all Scots is critical for this. It’s time for politicians across all of our parties to work together and commit to delivering the 15,693 social and affordable homes we need each year of the next parliament to end this emergency.”
