The quarterly housing statistics for Scotland released by Scotland’s chief statistician last week revealed that the 5% rise included growth in private-led completions of 9% (1,194 homes), an increase in local authority completions of 21% (239 homes), while housing association completions fell by 19% (525 homes).

Completions in the social housing sector (housing association and local authority completions combined) fell by 7% (286 homes).

The total number of new-build starts in the 12 months to the end of September 2017 was 19,440, a rise of 9% (1,536 homes) on the 17,904 new-build starts in the previous 12-month period.

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New-build starts in the private-led sector increased by 6% (805 homes), housing association approvals rose by 33% (1,180 homes), while local authority starts fell by 29% (449 homes).

Between July and September 2017, 4,018 new-build homes were completed across all sectors, an increase of 9% (316 homes) on the same period in 2016.

The private-led housing sector saw 3,263 new-build completions between July and September 2017, an increase of 17% (464 homes) on the same quarter in 2016.

However, there were just 3,146 private-led housing sector new-build starts between July and September 2017, down 14% (449 homes) on the same period in 2016.