Why Scotland Has a Housing Shortage
The Scottish housing market has not quite hit the level it was pre 2007, according to a recent report by the BBC. Of course this was due to problems that started over 10 years ago with the financial crash and subsequent recession.
Graph by Registers of Scotland
As can be seen from the graph, the volume of sales has increased slightly each year since the crash, but we are still a long way off the volume sales, almost 50,000 less in Scotland alone.
The main reasons for this are due to affordability of homes, mortgage availability, and the increase in Stamp Duty, introduced by the Scottish Parliament in 2015 – which has impacted the middle to high end of the market most. This has had a knock-on effect down the housing supply chain, and ultimately causes a shortage of supply.
The shortage has resulted in many home owners deciding to increase the size of their properties by building extensions and attic conversions.