Around 340,000 households or 15 per cent of all homes in Scotland are in the private rented sector (PRS).
The sector is concentrated in our cities. 63 per cent of all PRS properties are flats. Out of all housing stock the PRS accounts for 25 per cent of homes in Edinburgh, 18 per cent in Glasgow, 27 per cent in Dundee and 18 per cent in Aberdeen.
The PRS is a dysfunctional market that trebled in size over the last 20 years. Its growth has exploited a lack of social housing.
We all need somewhere to live, and the market has overheated in too many parts of Scotland because there’s no choice for those with modest or low incomes.
Almost 12,000 households are in temporary homeless accommodation waiting to access a permanent council or housing association home; demand outstrips supply.
For the year to September 2020, Lothian had the highest average monthly rents for two-bedroom properties across Scotland at £969. Other areas with high rents include Greater Glasgow at £794 and East Dunbartonshire at £704.
The vast bulk of private landlords don’t build or create anything; they use economic advantage to access a buy-to-let mortgage to make money from people who have few choices in life. They recycle previous public housing.
The SNP manifesto promise to build 100,000 affordable homes over the next 10 years is problematic.
It’s the same pro rata target we’ve had for the last five years and that hasn’t been met.
The SNP’s promise of a Housing Bill that will reform Rent Pressure Zones is weak and feeble.
Even if RPZ’s worked (they don’t) they’d only cap rent increases at inflation +1 per cent. Glasgow PRS rent rises over the last decade were 40.9% overall; an RPZ over that decade would have given you a rise of 39.5 per cent.
We are on course to fail another generation of private renters in Scotland.
