New figures seen by Landlord Today show the scale of landlords fleeing the private rental sector in one part of the UK.

Estate agency chief David Todd, who runs KW Property Sales & Management in the Haddington part of Edinburgh, recently submitted a Freedom of Information request to the Scottish Government relating to landlords with only one property.

In May 2019 – under an earlier Freedom of Information request – it was found that there were 228,212 Landlords in Scotland registered with only one property. 

Todd submitted a similar request and discovered that as of June this year there were only 179,516 landlords with one property – this is a startling drop of nearly 50,000 individual landlords.

He says: “This is due to continued attacks on the sector with excessive taxation, ongoing costly legislation changes and a political system that is anti-landlord. Unfortunately this means in a housing crisis that there are now 50,000 less properties available for rent in the Private Rented Sector putting additional pressure on a crumbling Social sector.”

Todd explains that the most recent figures he could find suggested that the social housing sector north of the border had not increased – and possibly decreased – over the past 20 years.

Todd continues: “With a rising population and tinkering for political soundbites against landlords is now proving to have a negative effect in the housing market. In East Lothian, where my office is based, you can probably count on one hand the amount of available rental properties on the portals and most of these will already be let.”

Scotland has been at the forefront of activists’ campaigns for rent controls and stricter measures over all kinds of letting, including short term Airbnb-style lets.

It has seen effectively a zero per cent rent cap and an eviction ban, followed by looser restrictions but still tighter than anywhere else in the UK. 

Since April this year landlords can propose an increase of any amount for tenants on private residential tenancy agreements, but if the tenant wishes to challenge the increase they can refer it to a rent officer who must apply a tapering formula to the increase. 

If the increase proposed by the landlord is higher than that allowed through the tapering formula then the rent officer will set the rent at the lower level. 

The tapering formula will only apply if the tenant challenges the increase. If they don’t then the amount proposed by the landlord will take effect from the end of the notice period. 

Recently the prominent Scottish agent David Alexander, chief executive of agency DJ Alexander, has calculated that back in 1993 the social housing sector in Scotland made up 37.5% of the total housing stock. By 2020, the latest year for which there is data, this had dropped to 23%, suggesting a loss of 214,000 homes over the 27-year period.