New homes registered to be built in Scotland fall 5% to 2,330, NHBC figures show

By Scott Craig

NHBC figures show 2,330 new homes were registered to be built in Scotland in the third quarter of 2026, 5% fewer than in the same quarter of 2025.

These are registrations, not completions. Developers register a home with NHBC for its ten-year warranty before construction starts, so the figures track homes entering the building pipeline rather than homes finished or ready to buy.

Scotland’s fall was much smaller than the drop across the UK as a whole. NHBC said 26,231 new homes were registered UK-wide in the quarter, 13% down on 30,279 a year earlier.

The reported figures for Scotland give a single total. They do not split it into private and rental or affordable homes, and they do not give completions for Scotland.

Across the UK, NHBC said private sector registrations fell 8% to 18,359, and rental and affordable sector registrations fell 23% to 7,872.

Most other parts of the UK recorded steeper falls than Scotland. The largest, of 32%, came in the South East of England and in Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man, which NHBC reports together. Wales fell 24%. Yorkshire and the Humber saw a 27% rise and the West Midlands a 10% rise.

Daniel Pearce, chief strategy officer at NHBC, said: “The housing industry is at a critical point.” Speaking about the UK figures, he said “demand remains fragile, affordability is stretched” and that the figures show the new homes pipeline “is continuing to shrink”.

Mr Pearce also welcomed Your First Home, an equity loan scheme the UK Government has proposed for first-time buyers of new-build homes. That scheme is for England only and does not apply in Scotland.

NHBC is a warranty and insurance provider that provides warranties on more than 70% of the UK’s new homes, so its figures do not count every new home. It describes its registrations as a lead indicator of house-building activity and notes that historical figures can be revised.

Sources

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