Scotland dominates British new-build market

Research by Warwick Estates reveals that Scotland is set to continue its domination over Britain’s new-build market with the total number of annual sales once again dwarfing those of any other region in 2022.

In 2021, there were 54,788 new-build sales transactions in Great Britain. Scotland was, by far, home to the largest proportion of these sales with a total of 11,677. The next closest region was England’s South East with 7,335 sales.

Warwick can now reveal that Scotland is once again on track to dominate the market this year. Of an estimated 16,158 new-build sales in Britain in 2022, it looks like 10,914 will be in Scotland with the next closest region, the South East, far behind with 1,191 sales.

Scotland’s strong performance comes despite a forecasted annual new-build sales decline of -70.5% across Britain as a whole in 2022. In fact, Scotland’s annual decline of -6.5% is nothing compared to the rest of the British regions where annual declines have exceeded -80%.

However, when looking back over the last five years of new-build sales data, Scotland slips into second place behind the South East.

Of 473,630 new-build sales in Britain since 2017, 70,060 have been in the South East – an average of 14,012 per year.

In Scotland, there have been 56,669 – an average of 11,334 a year. And in London, there have been 53,957 sales which works out at 10,791 a year.

The worst performing new-build market over the past five years is Wales, home to just 13,721 sales – or 2,744 a year, followed by the North East where 21,357 sales equate to an average of 4,271 a year.