DJ Alexander Ltd believes while the policies are to be commended, they are not addressing the real issues of housing supply.

David Alexander, the chief executive officer of DJ Alexander Scotland, said: “While the Town Centre Empty Properties Fund sounds like a good idea to transform unused urban properties into viable homes this is only a £4m fund creating 87 affordable homes. In the great scheme of things this is so small as to be almost meaningless in relation to the wider problems the property market faces. With the Scottish Government estimating there are 27,000 long term empty homes it would take 310 years to convert every property with this level of funding.

“This latest announcement is going to create 37 converted homes in Glasgow; two in Inverness; six in Dalkeith; 19 in Kirkcaldy and a few others dotted around the country and, while this may be welcome, it isn’t going to make a great deal of difference.”

He added: “Obviously the Town Centre Empty Properties Fund is one of many policies aimed at increasing the volume of housing available in Scotland. However, the underlying problem is that new housebuilding has been substantially below historic levels for almost two decades and private new build; the private rented sector; and social housing have struggled to keep up with demand for years. This has resulted in steeply rising prices for homeowners, rent increases in the private rented sector, and lengthening waiting lists for social housing.”

DJ Alexander said while new housing supply in Scotland rose 15% year on year in 2018-19, it remains 19% lower than 2007-08. The decade before 2008-09, new housing numbers had exceeded 20,000 each year since 1995-96 (the first year for which there is data) and peaked at 28,486 in 2004-05 with annual figures consistently in the mid 20,000s, it added. Since then, they have been below 20,000 and dipped to as low as 14,940 in 2012-13.

Mr Alexander explained: “This situation has built up over decades as successive Scottish governments have built insufficient social housing which, coupled with a marked decrease in private housebuilding over the last 20 years, has resulted in our current shortages. The recent embarrassing announcement that Ukrainian refugees are to be housed in a ferry and in two disused tower blocks highlights the severe shortage of homes in Scotland when it is all but impossible to find housing for fewer than 1,000 people.”

According to the property firm, just 1,000 more social houses exist now compared to 13 years ago, causing “a major problem” in the social housing sector. A waiting list of 132,000 people has built up for social housing homes which means that this is an issue that will exist for decades to come, the company said.

Mr Alexander added: “If Scotland is to encourage immigration as part of its economic growth strategy, then housing must be a central plank of this policy. There is, therefore, an urgent need to substantially increase the volume of house building in the next five to ten years to address the social housing backlog, to ensure there is sufficient appropriately located properties in the private rented sector available for overseas workers, and a substantial flow of new build houses for new and existing buyers into the market. We cannot allow the current housing crisis to go on any longer.

“Given that the latest data is all pre-pandemic, we can expect volumes will be even lower for the last few years. This means that demand for homes to buy and to rent will remain at a peak for some time to come. There was already built-up demand from under supply over the previous decade and this has now erupted in the liveliest market any of use have seen in our lifetimes both in the buying and rental markets. Things will ease but it will take time for the supply to start to filter through and consequently reduce demand. More encouragement for home builders, for landlords and investors, and greater activity in social housebuilding would all help to satisfy the increasing demands of people in Scotland needing homes.”