Broad Rental Market Area (BRMA) data: FOI release

Information requested

1. A list of postcodes associated with each broad rental market area in Scotland.
2. A list of postcodes associated with each local authority in Scotland.
3. A summary of the sample sizes (and their proportions against each BRMA market size) used to calculate LHA rates for each BRMA Area (see https://www.gov.scot/publications/private-sector-rentstatistics-scotland-2010-2016/pages/9/ for an example)
4. The percentage of each sample (above) that is a market rent (i.e. an advertised rent) or a continuing/existing rent.
5. The market evidence on private rents used to determine the LHA and BRMA 30th Percentile as per FOI/202300343447. However, I would like the data monthly for the past 10 years up to the present date.

Response

1. A list of postcodes associated with each Broad Rental Market Area in Scotland.

Please find attached a file containing the list of all postcodes associated with each of the 18 Broad Rental Market Areas (BRMA) in Scotland. This is held within the LHA Direct website Search for Local Housing Allowance rates by postcode or local authority : DirectGov - LHA Rates (voa.gov.uk) which the Valuation Office Agency host for Rent Service Scotland.

2. A list of postcodes associated with each local authority in Scotland. 

Rent Service Scotland do not hold a list of postcodes associated with each local authority in Scotland. However a list of Scottish postcodes by local authority is held on the NRS website and can be found at this link - 2023-1 Scottish Postcode Directory Files | National Records of Scotland (nrscotland.gov.uk)

3. A summary of the sample sizes (and their proportions against each BRMA market size) used to calculate LHA rates for each BRMA Area (see https://www.gov.scot/publications/private-sector-rent-statistics-scotland-2010-2016/pages/9/ for an example).

There is currently no legal obligation for landlords or agents to provide Government, or any other organisations, with details of the rents achieved on their lettings. Therefore rent officers have to actively seek, collect, validate and maintain a suitable dataset.

Rent Officers aim to capture a representative sample of around 10% of private rents based on the total number of records obtained (the amount of records used in average rent calculations may be slightly less than this due to removal of any multiple records for a single property/address in a given year. Note that, as set out in the Scottish Government statistical publication on Private Sector Rent Statistics, if a particular property has more than one piece of market evidence available in a given year, then only the most recent item of evidence for that year has been used in the average rent calculations for this publication). Landlord registration data and census data is used as a baseline for establishing and monitoring the total sample proportion that is aimed to be achieved.

The sample should ideally reflect the profile of the market in terms of the type of property, its distribution, and the letting sources within each Broad Rental Market Area. As rent officers do not have access to every letting that takes place in the market the use of a random sample is not feasible, and given the variations in the size of the markets in each Broad Rental Market Area a simple quota based sample would be unlikely to produce representative results either.

There are no definitive measures for these so rent officers monitor local market activity and take every opportunity to acquire feedback from landlords, agents and tenants. This market intelligence means that rent officers are able to continually evaluate the composition of the list of rents used for Local Housing Allowance, and where necessary divert resources from their regular program of data collection to address any perceived weakness in the data.

This combined approach of regular and targeted collection based on market intelligence aims to produce a representative sample for each property size for each Broad Rental Market Area. This approach in turn reflects the structure of the legislation which allows for rent officer judgment on a number of these factors.

The private rented sector is very complex and is continually changing as it reacts to market forces. The overall target of a 10% sample therefore only represents a guide figure at Broad Rental Market Area level. Local knowledge, confidence testing and interpretation of other available data may be applied to refine the guide level. This contributes towards achieving a representative sample for each property size category at a Broad Rental Market Area level.

Estimated Sample Proportion of LHA data, to year end September 2022, when compared to total number of registered PRS properties

BRMA	PRS Stock Properties	Total Sample Size	Proportion
Aberdeen and Shire	36,616	3,907	11%
Argyll and Bute	3,412	400	12%
Ayrshires	15,961	2,532	16%
Dumfries and Galloway	10,288	990	10%
Dundee and Angus	22,364	1,904	9%
East Dunbartonshire	2,934	377	13%
Fife	20,927	1,688	8%
Forth Valley	14,152	1,739	12%
Greater Glasgow	61,269	5,611	9%
Highland and Islands	17,017	1,630	10%
Lothian	67,171	6,922	10%
North Lanarkshire	12,423	1,157	9%
Perth and Kinross	9,551	1,242	13%
Renfrewshire / Inverclyde	13,871	1834	13%
Scottish Borders	7,500	908	12%
South Lanarkshire	15,063	1,421	9%
West Dunbartonshire	2,696	375	14%
West Lothian	6,417	1,079	17%

Data Sources: Landlord Register (number of registered properties as at August 2022 as published as part of Written question and answer: S6W-11061 | Scottish Parliament Website), Rent Service Scotland.
Note that this comparison uses an approximate mapping from local authority to BRMA area. Also note that the Landlord Registration System is an administrative system used primarily to manage the registration of landlords and rental properties, and has not been designed to produce robust statistical figures on the sector.

4. The percentage of each sample (above) that is a market rent (i.e. an advertised rent) or a continuing/existing rent.

The latest Private Sector Rent Statistics publication Annex C - Methodology (source data, sampling methodology, sample sizes) sets out that the Rent Service Scotland market evidence data on private rents is sourced through a variety of means, including advertised rental information, private landlord and letting agent returns, and mailshot initiatives. In the year to end September 2022 an estimated 86% of records were from advertised rents.. The database excludes any rents related to social housing, midmarket rents, halls of residence, and private tenancies known to be the subject of housing benefit and regulated tenancies.

Summarised below is the percentages of advertised rents and sitting tenants for each of the BRMAs.

Throughout Scotland, 86% of the data collected for the collection year to end September 2022 is advertised and 14% is landlord returns of sitting tenants. The percentage varies across the BRMAs as there is no mandatory requirement for landlords to supply this information of rents achieved.

Year to end September 2022 - Estimated percentage of records which are advertised or relating to landlord returns / sitting tenants:

BRMA	Estimated proportion of records relating to advertised rents	Estimated proportion of records relating to landlord returns / sitting tenant rents
Aberdeen and Shire	97%	3%
Argyll and Bute	97%	3%
Ayrshires	83%	17%
Dumfries and Galloway	47%	53%
Dundee and Angus	95%	5%
East Dunbartonshire	91%	9%
Fife	99%	1%
Forth Valley	99%	1%
Greater Glasgow	82%	18%
Highland and Islands	82%	18%
Lothian	85%	15%
North Lanarkshire	92%	8%
Perth and Kinross	90%	10%
Renfrewshire / Inverclyde	64%	36%
Scottish Borders	94%	6%
South Lanarkshire	73%	27%
West Dunbartonshire	84%	16%
West Lothian	99%	1%
Scotland	86%	14%

Note these are approximate estimates only, based on an analysis of text values within the Rent Service Scotland ROCAS IT system text field

5. The market evidence on private rents used to determine the LHA and BRMA 30th Percentile as per FOI/202300343447. However, I would like the data monthly for the past 10 years up to the present date.

We do not hold this information on a monthly basis and the most up to date data is for the collection year ended September 2022. The market evidence on private rents used to determine the LHA and 30th percentile is collected on an annual basis to comply with the annual Rent Officers Housing Benefit and Universal Credit Order. This sets the collection period annually of 1st October to 30th September and each year Rent Officers determine LHA rates for the coming financial year. The method by which they determine the rates and when they do this is set out in the Rent Officers (Housing Benefit Functions) Scotland Order 1997 and the Rent Officers (Universal Credit Functions) Order 2013.

This data was published as per FoI request 202200303624 BRMA Market Evidence & Calculations: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) from 2010 to 2015 and 2016 to 2021. An additional FoI request 202300343447 Market evidence data on private rents: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) published the data for the 2022 collection year. The data contained within both requests is the most up to date available and the data for the end of September 2023 collection year will be available once the LHA rates have been calculated and published on 31st January 2024.

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FOI 202300368850 - Information Released - Postcodes

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Excel document

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3.5 MB