Q4 2022 will go down in history as one of the most challenging periods for providers of private rented residential accommodation in Scotland. A disastrous September UK mini-budget unravelled spiking mortgage rates sharply to layer on concern for many (mortgaged) landlords already reeling from the legislative announcement of the Cost of Living (Tenant Protection)(Scotland) Bill introducing generalised bans on evictions and rent rises within pre-existing tenancies.
By quarter end having only passed into law in October, the social rented sector was swiftly exempt on provisos that many believe the PRS could also meet if given the requisite opportunity. Arguably the sector had never strayed out-with these parameters for in-tenancy rises at all. For the reported significant majority of landlords who do not adjust rents for their tenants in line with inflation or open market rents, the co-incidental timing of the combined events will have been unnerving and may destabilise the viability of their accommodation provisions at a time of chronic supply shortage.
“The chronic shortage of PRS properties available continues, whilst demand seems to be ever increasing. As a result, rents throughout Scotland continue to increase along with the stress levels of many people desperate to find a home. The reasons why there is such a shortage have been well documented so I won’t repeat them. The political football that the Scottish PRS has become, was pumped up, kicked around and burst by politicians. It’s now landlords and tenants who are suffering for their failures. I hope the New Year’s resolution being written in Bute House is to apologise for the ideological policy failures which have created the mess, and to promise to take a common sense approach to sorting it out.”
I am a Tenant Landlord
