Where do we stand on housing?
Jules Birch reports on a new and comprehensive statistical compendium for the Welsh housing sector that has been published for the first time this year.
The Welsh Housing Monitor brings together multiple datasets from Welsh and UK sources to produce one publication with the following chapter headings to give as full a picture as possible of housing in Wales:
- Housing need and supply
- Quality and standards
- Affordability of housing
- Homelessness.
The document is the result of collaboration between CIH Cymru and Welsh Government to ensure that practitioners, decision-makers and stakeholders have access to a comprehensive overview of the country’s housing sector to properly inform the sectoral debate about housing and homelessness in Wales.
The Monitor is based on the most recent available data as at the end of November 2025 and includes comparisons between different local authority areas within Wales and between Wales and the other UK nations.
WELSH GOVERNMENT TARGETS
The first chapter assesses delivery of new homes in general and affordable homes in particular against the need for them and Welsh Government targets. It looks in detail at progress towards the target of 20,000 low carbon social homes for rent in this Senedd term and the rate of delivery in different areas of Wales.
There is also discussion of progress on housebuilding more generally which explains why the question of how many new homes we are building in Wales does not have a simple answer. While housebuilding starts and completions data suggests that fewer than 5,000 new homes were delivered in 2024/25, data on Energy Performance Certificates for new dwellings and the council tax stock of properties suggests delivery of around 7,000 new homes. The graph below considers these three measures of supply plus Welsh Government’s dwelling stock estimates.
The chapter also includes discussion of housing market transactions, social housing lettings, empty homes and vacant social homes.
THE OLDEST HOUSING STOCK IN THE UK
The chapter on quality and standards starts with a key bit of context that Wales has the oldest housing stock in the UK and the UK has the oldest in Europe. It considers the improving position on energy efficiency, particularly for new homes, but also the alarming rise of fuel poverty to cover one in four households in Wales. Discussion follows on housing hazards, decarbonisation, the Welsh Housing Quality Standard and building safety.
Seen from the outside, housing in Wales looks relatively affordable (certainly by comparison with England). But while we have the lowest average private rents in the UK, Welsh renters have faced some of the biggest rent increases since the start of 2023 and also face the highest shortfalls in the UK between their rent and their housing benefit.
House prices are now above five times’ earnings (the level seen as the threshold of affordability) in 17 out of 22 local authority areas. The chapter concludes with discussion of second homes and holiday lets.
The final chapter puts rising levels of homelessness and housing stress in the context of legislative change and wider economic events. While the Welsh approach to homelessness prevention and relief has generally been successful, pressure is growing and the chapter includes a cross-Wales comparison of successful preventions per 10,000 households.
There was a marked increase in the number of households in temporary accommodation following the pandemic and the ‘no one left out’ policy. However, the numbers were down slightly in 2024/25.
The chapter also looks at trends in moves into suitable long-term accommodation and in rough sleeping and concludes with analysis of UK Ministry of Justice statistics on mortgage and landlord possession actions. This reveals a sharp fall in social landlord possessions consistent with the commitment not to evict in the rent standard. However, rising levels of social tenancies in rent arrears suggest there is no room for complacency.
Matt Dicks, CIH Cymru national director, said: ‘We are very pleased to have collaborated with Welsh Government to deliver this important publication.
‘A comprehensive and up to date set of data paints a full picture of where we’re at in terms of the number of new homes we are delivering, the quality of those homes, the affordability of housing and levels of homelessness is essential if we are to turn the corner on our housing pressures.
‘We have the UK Housing Review which provides some Welsh data, but this provides a more granular look at the scene in Wales through a series of datasets. We hope to continue this collaboration with Welsh Government to ensure that we reset this baseline of data on an annual basis.’
The Welsh Housing Monitor is free to download in English and Welsh here.