It was important for the inaugural Business of Housing conference to set out a position at the intersection of Scotland’s wider economy and the demographic dilemma.
This shift was obvious when Chris Dougray, vice-chair of the Edinburgh Development Forum, spoke during a panel on unlocking delivery. Dougray is an instinctive dealmaker whose day job is persuading global investors that cities such as Edinburgh are worth their time and money.
He recounted a speaking trip to China a decade ago. After an upbeat presentation on Edinburgh’s prospects, the first question from the floor was blunt: “Why should we put our money into Scotland… and not Texas?”
Dougray says Scotland’s housing sector needs to understand how flows of global capital operate. It is not comparing Scotland to an abstract ideal, but to competing regions across the rest of the UK, Europe and North America.
The demographics tell part of the story. In 2020, Scotland’s ‘peak age’ – the band with the largest number of people – was 27. Today, it is 34. By 2033, almost a third of the population is expected to be over 75. Those shifts affect both the type of homes Scotland needs and its ability to attract and retain workers.
Dougray put it simply. “If Frank, the plumber, and Jenny, the electrician, can’t get work, they leave. If we can’t supply housing at affordable cost to young people, they leave.”
If young professionals find high rents and thin choice in Glasgow, Edinburgh or Aberdeen, they will look to cities further afield where their salaries stretch further.
In that light, those technical debates about land supply and planning become urgent, hard-edged economic questions.
If Frank the plumber, and Jenny the electrician, can’t get work, they leave. If we can’t supply housing at affordable cost to young people, they leave
- Chris Dougray
Duncan Maclennan pressed the point further. Scotland has been reluctant to make explicit decisions about where it wants growth to happen and then align housing and infrastructure investment accordingly.
Government funding patterns still largely reflect historic disadvantage, while places with clear growth opportunities – Glasgow and its City Region, Inverness around its green freeport, parts of the south of Scotland investing in renewables – are struggling to get the right homes in the right places at the right pace.
For investors, clarity matters above almost everything else. Dougray relayed a remark from a former executive director of Homes England: out of 317 local authorities, Homes England was prepared to back just 15 with major capital.
The common factor was not geography or political colour, it was leadership — a clear, consistent story about where a place was heading and how housing fitted into that.
There are encouraging Scottish examples. Glasgow’s work with the Scottish National Investment Bank and Aviva at Cowlairs points in the right direction, attracting long-term capital not for a single scheme but a coherent programme.
The implication for policy is uncomfortable but unavoidable. If Scotland wants to compete for talent and investment, housing must be treated as enabling infrastructure alongside transport, digital connectivity and skills.
That means family homes near new industrial sites, enough mid-market and private rent for key workers, and a credible offer for people in their twenties and thirties who are currently pricing themselves out of a life here.
For more information on this year’s past housing conference click here and register your interest for The Business of Housing 2027.
