What the house building statistics cover, how we produce them, and their quality and comparability. Includes definitions and latest, past and upcoming changes.
We bring together published house building data from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales and aggregate them into UK-level and GB-level estimates for starts and completions of newly built dwellings. We publish UK and constituent country data quarterly, with an additional local authority level table updated annually.
Each UK country has different housing inspection systems. They define starts and completions of newly built dwellings differently in their data sources. Some source data may be revised or include imputed estimates.
Other sources of data on house building provide a more complete view of housing stock in each UK constituent country, as outlined in Comparability and coherence with other statistics producers. Our house building statistics are available earlier, for several time periods, and are broadly comparable across the UK.
We publish an overview of the data sources and aggregate statistics in our Indicators of house building, UK: overview article.
We do not provide analysis or commentary for these statistics because commentary on the data is already provided by the Ministry for Housing Communities and Local Government and the devolved governments.
You can find more information on their websites:
For more information about the statistical designation, go to Quality of the statistics.
We restructured and edited this guide on 11 August 2025. We have made no important changes to quality and methods.
For information on past and upcoming changes, go to Changes and their effects on comparability over time.
We present statistics on on house building for the UK in two separate datasets:
These statistics are for newly built dwellings and are broken down by the final sector of the dwelling:
A dwelling is counted as "started" on the date work begins on the laying of the foundation and "completed" when it becomes ready for occupation, or when a completion certificate is issued.
Data are available by country for:
Data for local authorities are available by financial year from the financial year 2009 to 2010 onwards.
For information on aspects of house building not included in Office for National Statistics (ONS) house building statistics, please see Comparability and coherence with other statistics producers.
Each UK country collects data on house building from administrative data sources.
Housing supply: indicators of new supply from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).
New dwelling statistics from the Northern Ireland Department of Finance.
Housing statistics quarterly update: new housebuilding and affordable housing supply from the Scottish Government.
New house building statistics from the Welsh Government.
The following are accredited official statistics:
The Office for Statistics Regulation independently reviewed these accredited official statistics in July 2012 and June 2013, respectively.
They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled “accredited official statistics”.
Data coverage limitations
These data do not cover the full extent of house-building activity or housing supply in England and Wales, so this causes a known undercount in the data. The data do not include:
Historic data
A small proportion of historic data between 1972 and 1992 may not add up to the correct total, likely because of a transcription error. We have not changed these figures, so they are consistent with the data sources.
Sector breakdowns
Housing may occasionally be allocated to the incorrect sector because the sector of a home can change between the time of inspection and when it is inhabited. This may lead to undercounting of housing association and local authority starts and completions, and a corresponding overcount of private enterprise figures.
England
A small amount of data for England are missing, so these data are replaced with estimates based on previously recorded data (a process known as imputation).
Northern Ireland
Start dates can be uncertain, and are defined differently in the Northern Irish data to other countries.
Scotland
Until April 2018, delays in reporting and recording meant that Scotland's housing associations statistics used approvals as a proxy for start date. Most approvals occurred in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar), which introduced a clear spike in the quarterly time series of starts. This spike can be seen for all total starts for all tenures from this period, which means that Scottish data were previously less robust (from June 2018, “starts” are used, instead of approvals).
Some quarterly estimates for new private house building starts in the Highland local authority are imputed.
Scotland’s housing association new-build statistics may be subject to some inaccuracy because they record approvals, and starts and completions for whole developments (or phases of larger developments), rather than individual dwellings.
Wales
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic affected quarterly data collection in Wales in 2020 and 2021. Financial and calendar year figures are available for this period, but quarterly figures are not available from Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2020 to Quarter 1 2022.
It can be difficult to determine the intended final sector of properties, so the sector data should be treated with caution because there may be:
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has developed Guidelines for measuring statistical quality based on the five European Statistical System (ESS) Quality Dimensions. These are:
We have integrated these considerations into the guide.
We restructured and edited this guide on 11 August 2025. We have made no important chnages to quality and methods.
If you need to access data collected for an area before boundary changes took place, please see the previous year's publication:
There have been no important changes to the quality or methods since we started producing the statistics.
We currently have no plans to change the methods in the near future.
House-building inspection systems work differently across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, so each country’s source data include information from different organisations.
England's statistics include:
Northern Ireland's statistics include:
Scotland's statistics include:
Wales's statistics include:
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s (MHCLG’s) Housing supply: net additional dwellings statistics for England are not comparable with ours because of the following differences.
| ONS | MHCLG |
|---|---|
| Includes new dwellings inspected by local authority building inspectors and National House Building Council inspectors | Includes more detailed administrative data from local authorities and the Greater London Authority and from other types of inspectors |
| Includes only starts and completions of newly built dwellings | Includes starts, completions, conversions, demolitions and changes of use |
The Scottish Government’s Housing statistics: supply of new housebuilding are not comparable with ours, because of the following differences.
| ONS | Scotish Government |
|---|---|
| Includes only starts and completions of newly built dwellings | Includes starts and completions of newly built dwellings, conversions, demolitions, and changes of use |
These statistics are used to inform:
UK data also allow international comparisons of housing supply.
We consider that a dwelling is completed when it becomes ready for occupation or when a completion certificate is issued.
Some data providers define completion dates differently:
A dwelling refers to a physical unit of accommodation, which may have one or more household spaces.
Sector refers to three types of developer that build a dwelling:
We consider that a dwelling is “started” on the date work begins to lay its foundation. Some data providers define start dates differently:
A guide showing how the different housing statistics produced by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) relate to each other.
House of Commons Library report on house building levels and policies in 2023, with accompanying spreadsheet for additional historical estimates of house building to the data in this series.
Welsh Government report covering the general principles and processes leading up to the production of new house building statistics.
Explanation of the new build and Affordable Housing Supply Programme statistics published quarterly by the Scottish Government Housing Statistics and Analysis Team.
Information on Housing Statistics for Scotland data sources including the collections, procedures, and users of the statistics.
The NI Department of Finance describes how new dwellings are recorded, and how data are quality assured.
Office for National Statistics (ONS), released 11 August 2025, ONS website, quality and methods guide, House building, UK quality and methods guide.
Housing Analysis team
better.info@ons.gov.uk