Why is Scotland's housing shortage getting worse?

It is three years since Scotland's largest cities declared "housing emergencies", followed months later by the nation as a whole.

Since then, homelessness has hit record levels while the cost of renting or buying property has continued to rise.

The solution to this crisis would appear straightforward - build more houses.

But delivering this is more complicated, with responsibility falling to central and local government as well as to private housebuilders.

Scottish ministers claim Scotland boasts the UK's highest rate of housebuilding but the pace is falling, and there are questions about whether the right homes are being built in the right places.

So far, 13 Scottish councils have declared housing emergencies for a variety of reasons.

They include rising pressure on homelessness services, high levels of people in temporary accommodation and a lack of affordable homes compared to lengthy waiting lists.

Homelessness has increased to a record level, with Scottish government data showing more than 19,000 households in temporary accommodation paid for by councils - a 10% rise on the previous year.

This includes 10,715 children living in temporary accommodation such as a bedsit.

A total of 35,000 households were assessed as being homeless or threatened with homelessness in 2025-26.

And as of March this year, there had been more than 180,000 applications to council or common housing lists - a figure which doesn't include some large authorities like Glasgow.

Scotland's largest city runs its social housing through housing associations, but says there are more than 6,000 applications waiting and more than 4,200 households in temporary accommodation.

The overall social housing stock held by councils and housing associations has been rising since 2017 - the year after the Right to Buy scheme was abolished in Scotland - but has only recovered to its 2004 level.

In March this year, there were 89,000 fewer social homes available than when the Scottish Parliament was reconvened in 1999 - despite a 9% rise in Scotland's population over the same period.

While demand for social and affordable housing has been rising, the total number of homes actually being built has been falling.

The housebuilding sector was only starting to recover from the 2008 financial crash when the Covid pandemic hit.

In the 2025-26 financial year, a total of 17,640 new homes were completed according to Scottish government figures - the third year in a row where the figure had fallen.

There is little prospect for an immediate improvement, as the number of new projects started over the last two years were the lowest since 2012-13.

As to why this is happening, housebuilders point to a range of factors.

The sector faces familiar problems with the cost of doing business, with construction materials particularly vulnerable to inflationary shocks like that which followed the war in Ukraine in 2022.

Industry bodies also complain about a lack of suitable land earmarked for building, and say it takes too long for planning permission to be given to new developments.

Red tape is also a concern. Homes For Scotland - which represents about 200 housebuilding firms - says the "regulatory burden being imposed by government" over recent years has added tens of thousands of pounds to the cost of a new-build home.

They note that Chancellor John Healey promised in his UK budget not to make major changes to building regulations for the rest of the parliamentary term.

Recent examples in Scotland include a levy to address unsafe cladding on tall buildings, new rules requiring "climate-friendly" heat sources and better energy efficiency.

Scottish Housing Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville told BBC Scotland News that ministers were alive to the concerns of housebuilders, but that these standards helped reduce energy bills and improved housing for disabled people.

There is a notable disparity in rates of building in different parts of Scotland, with construction particularly concentrated in the area around Edinburgh.

In 2025-26, 32% of the new homes completed in Scotland were in the Lothians.

If you add in Fife, which is also a popular area for people commuting to the capital, then this corner of the country accounts for 39% of all new homes built, despite only having 23% of the population.

Look to the west and the figures flip around; Glasgow and the surrounding councils have 32% of the population, but only 26% of the housebuilding.

This is true even in relatively affluent areas with high rates of population growth, like East Renfrewshire - where just 87 new homes were completed last year.

Glasgow has a homelessness problem so acute that the city council is spending almost £70m a year putting people up in hotel rooms.

Along with Edinburgh, the city has been declared to be in a state of "systemic failure" by the Scottish Housing Regulator.

Glasgow faces particular pressure with refugee households seeking support, with 44% of the 8,025 homelessness applications last year from people with refugee status or leave to remain - compared to 16% across Scotland as a whole.

And yet there were fewer new home "starts" there last year than in East Lothian, a more rural area with one sixth the population, with city leaders in Glasgow blaming rising construction costs.

Plans have just been announced for 6,500 new affordable homes to be built on brownfield sites - previously developed land which is currently unused - over the next six years.

The council also says it has identified 59 sites across the city as potential locations for another 12,173 new homes, which could be built by 2032 if funding becomes available, and is also looking at repurposing disused shops for housing.

There has been a historic shift in Scotland's population towards Edinburgh, with the capital's financial and service sector booming while areas in the west struggle to recover from the decline of traditional industries.

Demand for homes around the capital has driven up property prices. Edinburgh, Midlothian and East Lothian all feature in the top four areas in Scotland with the highest house prices, all well above the national average.

This makes it attractive to housebuilders seeking a return on investment - and it also means businesses in the construction trade and related supply chains are more likely to thrive there.

Meanwhile those in the industry say there are fewer small-to-medium sized building firms in more rural areas to take projects forward.

Higher prices in the east of Scotland have meant problems with affordability for some.

A study for Shelter Scotland suggested that 62% of newly-formed households - people entering the housing market for the first time, such as those leaving the parental home - in this area were unable to afford the current market. For Scotland as a whole, the figure was 55%.

That same study suggested an extra 15,693 affordable homes need to be built each year to end the housing emergency.

The Scottish government does not have an overall housebuilding target, but it did set one in 2022 for affordable homes - to complete 110,000 of them by 2032, with at least 70% available for social rent and 10% in island and rural communities.

The latest figures show 36,500 completions towards this target.

The Scottish Parliament Information Centre says that with just over five years left to go, this means on average 15,000 homes need to be delivered each year.

In 2025-26, there were 6,832 completions as part of the Affordable Housing Supply Programme - down from a peak of 10,466 in 2022-23.

So the rate of delivery needs to more than double, and then be sustained at record levels, if the target is to be met.

Ministers say they are committing £4.1bn over the next four years to support the delivery of "around 36,000 affordable homes".

Builders have welcomed the longer-term certainty offered by this funding, but that would still only get half way to the 110,000 target with two years remaining.

Modelling by the Fraser of Allander Institute think tank suggests it is more likely to take until late 2036.

The Scottish government says it "remains focused" on achieving the 110,000 target, while acknowledging that it is "challenging".

Somerville said it could be met through longer-term investment in publicly funded affordable housing schemes - through vehicles like the Scottish National Investment Bank - as well as support for private developers.

The government is also setting up a new national agency next year - More Homes Scotland - which hopes to "remove barriers and accelerate housing delivery".