Friday October 2nd 2026
Glasgow skyline
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Sarah Hilley
The cost of building a new social housing home in Glasgow has jumped by £50,000 in one year.
A city council report shows that it cost on average £226,891 for a housing association to construct a property measuring on average 94m2 in the year 2024 to 2025.
That figure soared to £278,000 last year for a size of 96m2.
Speaking at a council meeting this week, Councillor Anthony Carroll asked about what is particularly causing the “massive increase per unit.”
In response, an official said the council is not “seeing the inflationary” costs experienced over the last four years when there was a 35 per cent to 40 per cent increase in materials.
However she said people are “pricing in risk due to the cost of fuel” amid uncertainty.
Explaining that there were eight new build affordable housing projects in 2025 to 2026, she said bundles of projects impact on costs as bigger units and more family houses are being constructed.
Speaking at Tuesday’s economy, housing, transport and regeneration city policy committee, she said the cost of a property rose from £181,000 in 2019 to 2020 to £278,000 last year, which is a 54 per cent increase.
Highlighting how the budget has not kept pace, she said the budget in 2019 to 2020 was £104 million compared to £123 million last year – which is equivalent to 18 per cent.
She added: “We really are getting less for our money due to the increase in construction costs.”
Another officer pointed out the cost of materials and labour also went up.
There were plans to complete 633 new affordable housing homes in 2025 to 2026 but only 448 were finished in Glasgow.
The issue was discussed as councillors were presented with the performance review for Glasgow’s affordable housing supply programme last year.
Tweet Share on FacebookNews
