There are early signs that the controversial private rental sector rent freeze in Scotland could be made permanent.

The freeze, along with an eviction ban, came about as a result of so-called emergency legislation – the Cost of Living (Tenant) Protection (Scotland) Act 2022 – passed in the autumn by the Scottish Parliament, where an informal alliance between the Green Party and the Scottish National Party forms a majority. 

The law was to last for six months until April 2023 but had a provision that it could be extended for two additional six month periods – the first of these has now been confirmed with Green Party politician and Scottish Government tenants minister Patrick Harvie saying:  “Clearly, there are still economic challenges facing private renters and there is not the opportunity to agree a collective voluntary approach in the private rented sector … I would anticipate that it will remain necessary and proportionate to extend the rent cap provisions beyond March 31 in the private rented sector.”

However, Propertymark – the letting agents’ trade group – says it believes Harvie is working on proposals for a long-term permanent rent freeze, beyond that allowed by the current emergency legislation. 

A statement from the group says: “The Minister [Harvie] admitted that he is already developing long term proposals for rent control that will be designed to continue after the Cost of Living Act has expired.”

The Scottish Property Federation has long opposed the concept of the rent freeze with director David Melhuish saying: “Scotland faces a chronic undersupply of rental housing across both public, private and student accommodation sectors, and this emergency legislation will make this situation much worse. 

“There is a pipeline of new rented private accommodation estimated to be £3.5 billion earmarked for Scotland. This could deliver thousands of new high-quality and energy efficient homes for renters. We fear this legislation will now undermine the likelihood of many of these complex and capital-intensive projects actually being delivered any time soon.”

Timothy Douglas, Propertymark’s head of policy and campaigns, says: “Once again, the Scottish Government has failed to acknowledge what is happening in the private rented sector and the damage that legislation capping rents is causing. Unlike for providers of social rented accommodation there has been no task and finish group for the private rented sector to formally raise our concerns.

“Alarmingly, the minister also failed to acknowledge the impact of planned future legislation for the private rented sector that also includes energy efficiency targets that many landlords will struggle to afford. 

“We have recently written to the Deputy First Minister expressing our dismay at the budget decision to raise taxes when purchasing buy to let property as there is clearly a lack of basic understanding on the economics of supply and demand. It seems non-sensical that on the one hand the Scottish Government is increasing costs for investing in the private rented sector and on the other hand accusing landlords of increasing rents.”