Housing Land Audit 2024

The Housing Land Audit 2024 is an assessment of the housing land supply available in the Highland Council area as at 1st April 2024. The audit identifies and provides a programme of expected housing delivery over the initial 5 years and the two following 5 year periods and includes expectations for the delivery of new homes up to and including the year from April 1st 2038.

The period 2024 - 2029 includes the 5 complete years commencing in April 2024. Sites included in the Audit are housing sites under construction, sites with planning consent, sites in the relevant adopted or finalised   Local Development Plans   and, as appropriate, other buildings and land with agreed potential for housing development. All new housing development, redevelopment, conversions and subdivisions are included. In addition to sites allocated in the relevant   Local Development Plans  , there are a number of other sources of development that provide additional supply through windfall sites. Where such a site has planning permission on 1st April 2024 and will provide 4 or more housing units it has been included in the audit.

The National Planning Framework ( NPF4)  requires that planning authorities should ensure that sufficient land is available to meet the area housing land requirement (see below).

New Housing Land Audit Guidance was published in late January 2024 after the data for this audit had been collected. The new guidance however proposes a very similar approach that this audit follows. The next audit (with a snapshot date of 1st April 2025) will follow this guidance.

The Housing Land Audit has multiple purposes:

• To monitor the availability of effective sites;

• To identify progress of sites through the planning process; and,

• To provide analysis on house completions

The audit comprises data for all allocated housing sites and windfall housing sites with four or more units. The estimates of programmed completions in the draft audit were initially informed by Highland Council officials, along with additional advice and input from Homes for Scotland, developers, landowners and Housing Associations.

As we move towards a more robust approach to supporting the delivery of development we have been keen to ensure that the planning of housing sites and the timing of infrastructure delivery is informed by more accurate and realistic forecasts and this engagement is welcomed.

The draft version of this audit was discussed and agreed with "Homes for Scotland" and their representatives in March 2025. Their view is that no programming should be included in the Housing Land Audit for years 1-10 if detailed planning consent has not been gained. Highland Council however do include in the HLA programming figures for sites from year 4 onwards where a site has funding allocated in the SHIP or officer discussions have identified likely deliveries between years 4 and 15 to make the Housing Land Audit a practically useful document for infrastructure and service forward planning.

The housing land audit’s main findings are that the existing planned developments provide an adequate supply of available housing land across the Highland area in each of the identified programming periods covering all of the different geographic areas of Highland. 

Housing Land Supply - 5 and 10 year effective totals -  The initial 5 year period provides an indication of the immediate housing land supply in the Highland Council area. A programmed supply of 5736 housing units with 5029 of these units are identified for delivery in this period (April 1st 2024 - 31st March 2029) on sites allocated for Housing and Mixed-use (in the relevant Local Development Plan). The second 5 period from April 2029 to March 2034 suggests programming of a further 4756 units (with 4604 on housing allocated sites).

The 10 year supply (April 1st 2024 - 31st March 2034) contains 10492 units of which 9633 are on housing allocations from the relevant Local Development Plan.  Forecasting this far out is difficult - especially for years 8-10 as planning permissions and funding this far ahead is much more difficult to forecast.

The remaining capacity in this period is widely spread across the Highland area with continuing significant numbers of programmed building on Inverness and Mid/East Ross development sites - but with lower forecasts for Nairn. In Ross and Cromarty West, Caithness and Sutherland and Skye and Lochalsh low forecasts are currently being made, however in these Housing Market areas small windfall development on sites of 1 to 3 residential units has historically delivered a much higher proportion of completions

Large housing allocations with significant numbers of programmed completions remain in Inverness at Tornagrain, Stratton, Balloch, Ness Castle, Ness Side, Inshes/Milton of Leys, Torvean, Easterfield and Druid Temple. Further larger sites outside Inverness anticipating housing completions in this period are located in Beauly, Drumnadrochit, Fort William, Conon Bridge, Dingwall,  Muir Of Ord, Munlochy, North Kessock, Nairn, Dornoch, Evanton, Alness, Golspie, Kingussie, Invergordon, Newtonmore and Portree.

Windfall Sites - Less than 10% of the 10 year programming delivery is expected from larger windfall sites (site of 4 or more approved units included in this audit).

Smaller windfall development of less than 4 units is not included in this figure or in the Housing Land Audit however this has historically contributed significantly to the total housing supply in some housing market areas. Across the Highland Council area in Financial Year 2021/22 over 15% of completions were on small windfall sites of 1 to 3 residential units.

House Completions - Information on house completions in previous years give a useful supplementary indicator of demand and supply. Figures as follows for the previous 5 Financial years:

This is a 5 year average of 1232 per year and suggests that the level of market in recent years is adequately catered for within the programmed house building figures identified as the effective housing land supply, should demand continue at a similar level.

Detailed information on Housing Completions is available through a dashboard here:

 Highland Council area Completions Dashboard 

The following table summarises site based programming figures for the first 5 and 10 year periods. These are summarised by Highland Council Ward to give an overview of the findings of the latest June 1st 2023 based audit.

The latest available   Highland Housing Needs and Demand Assessment (HNDA) 2020   identifies the expected demand for housing over the years from 2019/20 to 2038/39 inclusive.

The HNDA suggested a 5 year requirement for the 5 Financial Years 2019/20 to 2023/24 (inclusive) using the High Migration estimate with additional "In-Year arising need" of 4996 housing units and in this period. The 5 Financial years to March 2024 delivered 6162 house completions - an average of 1232 per year.

This Housing Land Audit indicates a 5 year housing land supply for the period (2024/25 to 2028/29) of 5736 units and a 10 year supply (for 2024/5 to 2034/35) of 10492 units.

The 20 year HNDA target (Financial years 2019/20 to 2038/39 inclusive) identifies a cross Highland total requirement of 13923 housing units. This latest Housing Land Audit indicates a programming of 12607 units over the shorter 15 year period from April 2024 to March 2039.

Looking in more detail at Housing Market Areas (HMAs) in the Highland Council area (see Table 2) the following should so be noted:

• 1-3 housing unit windfall sites are excluded from the Housing Land Audit meaning audit figures underestimate the actual delivery in any area. In certain Housing Market areas this makes up a significant contribution to the total housing delivery.
• The Area Development Plans, starting with the   IMFLDP   and now   CASPLAN   and   WESTPLAN   identify "Other Settlements" or "Growing Settlements" where site allocations no longer apply. Any completions here will increase the overall windfall contributions to figures in these areas.
• The building of properties that become "non-effective" as permanent residential housing (e.g. holiday homes or second homes, or become used as short-term lets) are included in programming figures and house completions used in the Housing Land Audit.

The table shows the yearly, 5 year and 10 year programming on Housing allocations and Windfall sites of 4 or more units for each Housing Market Area.

The following map allows the user to display the detailed programming figures for housing used in this audit down to individual site level.

Zoom to a specific location and click on a displayed housing site in this audit (red or blue dashed outlines) to expose a pop-up box showing information on the site and current programming of housing.

This map can be opened separately and independently for exploration from this link:

  HLA2024 Interactive Web Map