Private Sector Rent Statistics, Scotland, 2010 to 2023

Official statistics on the size of the private rented sector based on annual Scottish Household Survey estimates have been affected by the impact of the Covid pandemic on the operation of the survey. Therefore, the most comprehensive up-to-date measure of the overall stock of privately rented properties is the number of properties registered on the Scottish Landlord Register.

There are some limitations of this data source, such as the fact that registrations last for a period of three years and there could be a time lag in landlords de-registering properties which are no longer available for rent. Also in the case of any landlords looking to leave the sector or reduce their portfolio, it should also be recognised that the process could take several months from freeing up properties to completing sales.

Nevertheless subject to these limitations, Table 7 below shows that the number of registered properties has averaged at around 340,000 since January 2022, with a slight increase to over 344,000 in the most recent month October 2023.

Table 7: The number of registered properties on the Scottish Landlord Registration System, January 2022 to September 2023

Source: Scottish Landlord Registration System monthly monitoring figures. Note that May-23 figures were based on a snapshot taken on 6 June 2023.

Previous Scottish Household Survey estimates up to the year 2019 showed that the private rented sector in Scotland had more than doubled in size since 1999, and accounted for around 340,000 households in 2019, a seventh of all homes in Scotland[1]. However, that 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 then dropped slightly, to stand at 340,000 (14% of all households) in 2018, after which it remained at a similar size in the latest year 2019. More recent estimates for 2020 and 2021 are not directly comparable to previous figures due to the impacts from the Covid period on the survey.

Chart 13 below illustrates these longer term 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.

Chart 13 - Scottish Household Survey estimates of household tenure by year, 1999 to 2019: Estimated numbers of households (note this chart excludes a small proportion of "other" tenure households)

[1] See SHS 2019 results in Table 3.1a within the SHS Data Explorer