Scotland’s Shrinking Private Rented Sector – The Numbers Tell the Story?

My latest Freedom of Information request reveals a striking trend: the number of landlords owning just one rental property is continuing to fall, substantially since last year, and dramatically since 2019.

In May 2019, there were 228,212 registered single-property landlords.

By June 2024, this had dropped to 179,516.

As of August 2025, the figure stands at just 158,376.

While there has been an increase in landlords owning two or more properties, this has not translated into more homes being available to rent. In fact, the opposite is true.

The private rented sector (PRS) had 400,492 properties in March 2021. By March 2023, this had fallen to 357,706—a loss of over 42,000 rental homes. From what I’m seeing, the situation has worsened even further in the last two years. Perhaps this is why the latest tenure data has yet to be published.

There is no coincidence here

Government policy, tax changes, and an increasingly hostile climate towards landlords are pushing individual landlords out of the sector. And as the PRS contracts, we now find ourselves in a national housing emergency.

Let’s be honest: the PRS has been quietly propping up the social housing sector for years. Now that it’s shrinking, the pressure is shifting—fast and hard—onto a system that was already stretched.

Policy has consequences. And the reality is, we need more homes, particularly in the social and rented sectors. By effectively forcing out single-property landlords, we’re now relying on corporate investors and large developers to fill the gap. But with ever-changing legislation and rent controls being tossed around as silver bullets, investment is flowing elsewhere, often just across the border to England, where the climate is seen as more stable and welcoming.

This isn’t rocket science. The numbers are plain to see.

It’s time for bold, evidence-based action before the crisis deepens further.

FOI/202500481827
FOI/202000090239
FOI/202400423932

David