Scottish Greens hit back at landlord claims

Scottish Greens hit back at landlord claims

0:04 AM, 6th March 2024, About 2 months ago 14

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A political party has hit back at claims made by the Scottish Association of Landlords which said that 22,000 homes have disappeared from Scotland’s private rented sector (PRS).

The Scottish Greens says the landlords are offering ‘misleading claims’.

The Greens say the figure is based on self-reported data from a limited pool of member landlords and has been extrapolated to encompass all of Scotland.

Rental homes in Scotland have risen by 1.7%

Now, the Greens are pointing to the official landlord register which reveals that the number of registered rental homes in Scotland has risen by 1.7% during the period of the emergency rent cap.

Scottish Green MSP Ross Greer expressed scepticism about the lobby group’s claims and said: “It’s a sign of real desperation that they are reduced to claims at odds with the evidence.

“Rather than declining, the number of rented properties has increased over the last 18 months.”

Landlord exodus from the Scottish rental market

Mr Greer went on to say that instead of a landlord exodus from the Scottish rental market, official data shows that rental housing stock has grown from 120,000 pre-devolution to more than 340,000 currently.

He adds that across Europe, ‘sensible and balanced regulations’ coexist with thriving markets, benefiting both tenants and responsible landlords.

Mr Greer said: “It may well be that some landlords have taken properties out of renting but that has always been the case. Some come, some go. We need to look at the full picture.

“Over the last two decades, the response from landlord groups has been as predictable as it has been wrong.”

He added: “Each new regulation is greeted with claims that landlords will walk away, but the number of rented homes has grown from 120,000 pre-devolution to over 340,000 today.”


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Comments

Lomondhomes

23:43 PM, 6th March 2024, About 2 months ago

Thats good, so they wont be complaiñing about a housing shortage as Shelter are doing. All is cushty and they wont be blaming Landlords in future. Life must be wonderful with heads being buried in the sand......but ive already started selling with a few more to go

Jireh Homes

19:23 PM, 10th March 2024, About 2 months ago

Reply to the comment left by Monty Bodkin at 06/03/2024 - 16:34
Percentage of PRS against total housing stock
2000 6.7%
2010 11.6%
Growth 5%, over 10 years = 0.5%
2020 14.9%
Growth 3% over 10 years = 0.3%
2022 12.7%
Fall 2% over 2 years = 1%

Beaver

15:52 PM, 11th March 2024, About 2 months ago

Reply to the comment left by Jireh Homes at 10/03/2024 - 19:23
And over the same period there's been a growth in housing provided by housing associations. As the SNP drives PRS landlords out the market loses flexibility and this drives rents up as those tenants who don't want to live in housing provided by housing associations compete for the dwindling supply of stock.

But Scottish voters are getting what they voted for; that's democracy. They shouldn't be blaming Westminster, or landlords for that. What the SNP wants, just as all left-wing single-party states want, is an electorate dependent upon the party. It's what they are getting.

Graeme Milloy

16:10 PM, 14th March 2024, About 2 months ago

As an owner of many let properties I do agree the number of LL selling seems not to be readily known due to many factors but mainly misleading numbers registered. However I’m not seeing large volumes of properties on the market from selling LL.
Clearly more available properties from new build is the answer to cooling the market.
The Scottish Government is not helping in this.

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