With property supply already chronically restrained in many areas of Scotland over the past year, it would be an understatement to observe that the lettings industry across the private and social sectors expressed concern at the snap policy announcement in early September summarily banning rent rises (for existing tenancies) and evictions.

Legitimate questions have been raised as to the impact on the future supply of rental properties in the PRS and implications for new rents on the open market, upon which Citylets reports, which are already rising fast.

Whilst well intent, the calculations as to the net impact on the sector are unclear as is the data basis for the policy that could highlight the scale of the problem it seeks to address.

Strong double digit annual growth again continued in most of Scotland’s main cities pushing the average property to rent in Scotland up 8.3% over the period to average £981 per month. Aberdeen posted strong annual growth now at 8%.

With interest rates having risen significantly and expected to go further, the myriad of push and pull factors on both supply and demand are now set in motion for an anticipated recession which may be of different character to previous. Certainly more would-be buyers remaining in the PRS will put further pressure on supply.

Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee recorded annual growth at 14.7%, 12.6% and 12.3% respectively.

The average property in Scotland takes just 19 days to let underlining the fact that property to rent is in high demand across the whole country.

For a full view of the quarter’s trends with market overview please see report here:

https://www.citylets.co.uk/research/reports/property-rental-report-scotland-2022-q3/

Our ‘mix-adjusted’ processes allow us to report on the whole market at national/city/regional level, in addition to by bedroom number. We only report on towns and intra-city postcodes where there is statistically sufficient data to safely do so. Collectively, we believe our processes keep the Citylets Report the freshest, most in depth and reliable on the market for key Scottish PRS metrics.