It would seem to be impossible to dispute the assertion that the property rental market in Scotland is in the midst of a crisis.
Rental costs are rising sharply amid a worsening shortfall in the availability of affordable homes, with more people entering the private rental sector as universities enrol more students and people are finding it more difficult to buy homes because of high interest rates.
Even the emergency measures introduced by the Scottish Government to alleviate the cost of living crisis last year would appear to be having a limited effect.
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Ministers earned plaudits for enacting a rent freeze and moratorium on evictions in September.
The freeze was changed to a 3% cap on “in-tenancy” recent increases in March this year, which will now be in place until March at the latest following an extension in June. Going forward the consensus seems to be that some form of national rental controls will remain in place.
Yet, while aspects of Scotland’s rent control policy have been well received, there are gaps in the rules which have drawn criticism for different reasons.
Tenants’ organisations such as Living Rent have pointed out that the rent cap applies to tenancy agreements and not properties. It means that, for example, landlords can put new tenancy agreements in place with higher rents should someone leave a shared property.
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On the other side, landlords seem almost as unhappy. They argue that the presence of rent controls is enough to deter institutional investors such as pension funds from providing the capital that is needed to develop build-to-rent residential projects they say are crucial to the supply of new homes.
One thing that everyone seems to agree on is that Scotland badly needs an injection of new affordable and social homes to ease the pressure and provide more people with the roofs over their heads that they deserve.
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