Scottish Labour’s pledge to build 60,000 new affordable homes over the course of the next parliament would support almost 50,000 jobs a year and help thousands of first-time buyers, the party has claimed.

Revealed earlier this month, Labour has promised to build a minimum of 12,000 affordable properties per year over five years, 45,000 of which would be for social rent either through councils or housing associations, if it wins power in May’s Holyrood election.

Now the party has highlighted analysis based on a Homes for Scotland estimate that 4.1 jobs are supported for every home built, which has been verified by the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe), that about 49,200 jobs annually would be sustained by the plan.

The announcement was made during a national day of campaigning on housing policy by the party over the weekend at 42 events held across Scotland.

Deputy leader Alex Rowley said: “Getting it right on housing can be the key that unlocks so much opportunity for our country; we can tackle poverty and grow the economy by building more homes.

“New analysis shows that our plan to build 60,000 homes over the next five years will sustain thousands of jobs.

“The SNP government in Edinburgh have turned a housing shortage into a housing crisis.

“Scotland has more than 150,000 people on social waiting lists, an unacceptable amount of private tenants living in poverty, whilst three-quarters of non-owners feel they will never own a home.

“That’s why Scottish Labour is promising bold and radical action in every area of housing.”

The party has also suggested that its plan to give first time buyers £3,000 towards the purchase of a property, the first manifesto pledge by Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale, would help about 17,200 first-time buyer transactions by the end of the next parliament.

Mr Rowley added: “A whole generation of young people have been left behind by austerity and Labour will give them a chance to get on in life. So many young people in Scotland are stuck in a cycle from which they can’t escape. They end up renting to save for a deposit, but the rent is so high they simply can’t put enough money away. No wonder more than half see the size of a deposit as a barrier to owning a home.

“For those living in the private rented sector we’ll ban rip off rent rises to stop bad landlords hitting tenants with unfair rent hikes.”

SNP MSP Mark McDonald said Labour’s latest housing proposal cannot be taken seriously “as there is no suggestion of what this will cost or how it will be funded” while the Scottish Greens said the proposal “lacks ambition”.

Maggie Chapman, housing spokesperson for the Scottish Greens, said: “Labour’s housing proposal shows their desire to do the right thing is fatally undermined by their lack of imagination and links to big business. There is a housing crisis in Scotland and the 12,000 homes a year proposed by Labour don’t come close to the number of new houses Shelter say we need to meet demand.”

Ms Chapman added: “Scotland can provide warm, affordable homes for all but we must scale up our ambition.”