Affordable housing provision in Wales drops by 3% in 2023-24

This figure – which includes social rent, intermediate rent and shared ownership homes, and temporary accommodation with leases of more than a year – excludes shared equity affordable properties, meaning it is lower than the overall number of affordable homes delivered for the year.

In 2023-24, registered social landlords delivered 1,942 homes for social rent, 249 for intermediate rent and 167 for shared ownership.

Local authorities completed 734 homes for social or intermediate rent, and 66 homes were delivered by other providers.

The Welsh government’s draft Budget, published on Tuesday, included an extra £81m in capital funding for 2025-26 to help build more homes for social rent.

Yet, the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) Cymru warned that the 20,000 target was still at risk, falling far short of the hundreds of millions of pounds that Audit Wales estimated is needed to meet the goal.

“Despite this welcomed increase, it falls well short of the additional £580m to £740m that a recent report by Audit Wales said would be needed to reach the 20,000 target by March 2026,” said Matt Dicks, national director at CIH Cymru.

A Welsh government spokesperson said: “Tackling homelessness and delivering more homes is a key priority for this government, and we are committed to using all levers at our disposal to deliver more homes.

“In our draft Budget, we maintained our record levels of investment in housing supply and secured an additional £81m to support the delivery of additional affordable housing.”

They added: “Investing in social housing takes time, and we will continue to work with registered social landlords and local authorities to deliver against one of our highest priorities as a government.”

Almost three-quarters (73%) of the 3,255 affordable homes delivered in 2023-24 were new build, while 92% were for social or intermediate rent, 5% were shared ownership and 3% shared equity.

Registered social landlords delivered 75% of all affordable housing provision in 2023-24 and increased their overall output by 3% to 2,433 homes. Of these, 1,990 were newly built properties.

Of the 756 affordable homes delivered by local authorities, 45% were new builds. The three local authorities that delivered the most homes were Cardiff (302 homes), Carmarthenshire (84 homes) and Pembrokeshire (74 homes).

The number of intermediate rented properties delivered by social landlords increased by 24% in 2023-24, accounting for 10% of their overall provision.

The data also revealed that the number of affordable housing properties granted planning permission dropped by 50% to 522, while delivery of affordable housing on public sector land also declined, falling by 64% to 485 homes.