Rented housing has become critical for many more people but needs institutional investment to make it more attractive, a leading agent has said.
David Alexander said housebuilders should have a quota of low-cost rented accommodation, as well as social housing, in new developments.
Mr Alexander, founder of Edinburgh's biggest letting agency DJ Alexander, said there was a misconception landlords had been driving rents higher, as "in real terms rents are no greater than they were 10 to 15 years ago".
He went on: "What I have sympathy with is people being forced to move every six months, when the landlord decides to take it back, move in himself, or sell it. It would be nice to see more investment in long-term options for people to rent."
Longer-term tenancies, allowed under the law which merely sets six months as a minimum, could change the economics for builders and investors, Mr Alexander said.
He added: "If you are building 100 units, 25% need to be offered to the rental market at affordable rents over a long period of time."
The Scottish Government had taken a bigger interest in the sector, in upholding tenants' rights over deposit protection and not paying up-front fees, Mr Alexander said, and it could now incentivise builders to do more for the rented market.
He also warned landlords against inflating rents, saying: "If they become unaffordable, people fall into arrears and we are going to have a crisis."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article