Last week a £50 million infrastructure fund was announced, which is intended to speed up the construction of thousands of new homes in Scotland, according to the Scottish Government.
The fund was announced by Social Justice Secretary, Alex Neil, who says that this signals the government’s “determination to increase the pace and scale of development to deliver more homes across all tenures.”
The Scottish Government has a five year commitment to delivering at least 50,000 affordable homes, 70 per cent of which will be for social rent. This is being backed by an investment of over £3 billion pounds.
Both grant and loans will aid the unlocking of strategic housing sites of importance to local councils and the fund forms part of a package of measures to aid the supply of homes across Scotland.
It is the hope of the Government that this funding will reinvigorate the market and increase the rate at which houses are being built.
Building on the success of the National Building Trust, new financing mechanisms are also being explored to expand and aid mid-market rent developments.
Last week the Scottish Social Justice Secretary, Alex Neil, said the funding will help “unblock” areas of importance that can be used to accelerate the delivery of thousands of new homes and explains how this will be done. He said:
“To make that happen we will team up with public and private sector bodies to tackle complex development, financing, infrastructure and planning issues impeding housing supply.
“We have listened to our partners and are putting in place measures to support the increase in the supply of homes across all tenures, support jobs in the construction industry, and encourage inclusive growth in the wider economy.”
This news is welcomed by Clyde Property, as Managing Director, Gary Thomson, explains that he has seen unprecedented demand from both buyers and tenants over the last few years. He said: “It is clear that the housing supply in both the owner and rental market is not keeping up with demand. These measures that have been announced by the Scottish Government to increase the supply of available housing stock are very welcome news to us.”
Tom Barclay, co-chair of the Joint Housing Policy Group, also welcomes the funding announcement, and notes that it is a sign of a change in priorities for the Scottish Government. He said:
“This announcement by the Cabinet Secretary on infrastructure support is one of a series of actions that is signalling a step change in Scotland to prioritise the building of new homes.”
At Clyde Property, we pride ourselves on being the leading estate agency in Scotland and offering new home developers highly bespoke marketing packages that are guaranteed to successfully sell their development. We believe that through our local branches who offer expert advice seven days a week, together with our online database and offline marketing, we can successfully target buyers and sell new homes and developments across Scotland. See some of our very recent successes with new developments here or just contact us to discuss your new development marketing plan.
