Private Sector Rent Statistics, Scotland, 2010 to 2022

Annex A – Trends in the Size of the Private Rented Sector in Scotland

Scottish Household Survey figures up to 2019 show that the private rented sector in Scotland has more than doubled in size since 1999, and now accounts for around 340,000 households, a seventh of all homes in Scotland^[10]. However, whilst private rented stock increased substantially in size in the period between 2002 and 2016, the number of private rented households dropped slightly between 2016 and 2018.

The figures show that the number of households in the private rented sector grew steadily from 120,000 (5% of all households) in 1999 to 370,000 households (15% of all households) in 2016, an increase of a quarter of a million households. The number has since dropped slightly, to stand at 340,000 (14% of all households) in 2018, after which it has remained at a similar size in the latest year 2019. More recent estimates are available for 2020^[11], although these are not directly comparable to previous figures due to the impacts from the Covid period on the survey.

Chart A1 below illustrates these trends, along with figures for other tenures. The number of households in owner occupation grew from 1.32 million (61% of all households) in 1999 to 1.55 million (66% of all households) in 2009. Following this, the number declined by 90,000 households to 1.46 million (60% of all households) in 2014, before growing back by 80,000 households to 1.54 million (62 of all households) in 2019.

The number of households in the social rented sector fell from 690,000 (32% of all households) in 1999 to 520,000 (22% of all households) in 2009, but has since stabilised, and was 590,000 (24% of all households) in 2019.

Note when interpreting percentage figures that that the total number of households in Scotland has increased by 15% from 2.17 million households in 1999 to 2.50 million households in 2019.

Separate stock by tenure estimates are available from annual housing statistics publications^[12].