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 , externalbut 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, external 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.