This most recent rental market report from Zoopla and Hometrack (part of Houseful) shows that residential rent price pressures are being seen across the UK, but particularly in Scotland. The current rent caps on existing tenancies have simply fuelled greater rises in rents on new tenancies - much as forecasted.
Scotland is recording the fastest growth in rents at 12.7% where rent controls are forcing landlords to maximise rents for new lets.
Rental Inflation proves that rental controls do not work.
"If the UK was suffering a critical shortage of bread, the answer from politicians would not be to ban bakers from increasing their prices, it would be to encourage more bakers to bake more bread. With a tax of 6% on top of stamp duty being applied to anyone buying a property to rent in Scotland, is it any wonder there are no new landlords rushing to help supply the urgently needed rental accommodation our younger population so desperately need.
With Zoopla's UK Rental Market Report having just been released, we can see that the 3% rent cap in Scotland is simply not working. With inflation of 15.6%, Edinburgh is by far the worst impacted of any UK city, followed closely by Glasgow.
The solution: reduce taxation on Scottish landlords, and we'll have more properties to rent."
(Source: Zoopla Rental Market Report, September 2023).
Annual rental growth ranges from 4.2% in Northern Ireland to 12.7% in Scotland, which has overtaken London as the area with the fastest rental growth. Rents for new lets in Scottish cities are 15.6% higher in Edinburgh and Dundee and up 13.7% in Glasgow. The introduction of rent controls in September 2022 is a key factor here, these have capped increases in rents for existing tenancies at 3% a year.
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