Rented sector reform: landlord and tenant engagement questionnaire - analysis report

2: Profile of questionnaire respondents

In total 6,650 responses were available for analysis. As noted above, there are considerable variations in the number of respondents in each group, ranging from 2,893 private landlords down to five SRS tenant organisations. A full breakdown of respondents by type is set out in Table 1 below. The variations seen reflect the differences in the potential number of respondents in each group but may also have been affected by the information sharing and dissemination options available to the Scottish Government.

Very much reflecting the main focus of the questionnaire, the largest groups were PRS landlords, with 44% of respondents, and PRS tenants, with 29% of respondents. Other points to note are that:

• 48% of all respondents came from the four groups with a landlord perspective (PRS landlord, PRS landlord organisation, SRS landlord and SRS landlord organisation).
• 33% of all respondents came from the four groups with a tenant perspective (PRS tenant, PRS tenant organisation, SRS tenant and SRS tenant organisation).

Points to note about other groups include that:

• The PRS landlord organisation group is largely made up of letting agents, property management companies and representative bodies.
• The SRS landlord group includes responses from a number of individual respondents. It is not known, however, whether these respondents may, for example, work with the SRS.
• This also applies to the SRS landlord organisation group. This group also contains some responses from organisations that own and rent social housing.

There is very limited information on the make-up of the ‘None of the above’ group, although the considerable majority (95%) were individual respondents. The organisations that gave a name (of which there were 45), included third sector advice and animal welfare agencies, unions, housing developers, finance organisations and property management companies.

The overall balance of opinion in both the ‘None of the above’ and ‘None selected’ groups tended to the reflect that of the PRS and SRS tenant respondents, and views across these four respondent groups tended to be in line with those of Living Rent.

Given the various caveats about respondent groups, including the disparity in their sizes, the figures set out in this report should be seen as indicative. This applies particularly to the balance of opinion for the groups with smaller numbers of respondents.

Landlords’ number of properties

Landlord respondents were asked about how many properties they have available for rent (including those currently occupied by tenants), and the results are set out in Table 2 below. Given some of the issues with the respondent groups set out above, particularly in relation to SRS landlords and SRS landlord organisations, the figures for landlord organisations are also presented.

Most of the landlord respondents had small portfolios rather than being larger, professional landlords or landlord organisations. The majority of all landlords, 46% of those responding to the questionnaire, reported that they own one rental property and a further 33% that they own 2-4 rental properties. This rose to 48% and 34% respectively of PRS landlords. Relatively small numbers of responses came from landlords with larger portfolios, only 30 PRS landlords had 50 properties or more, as did 12 SRS landlords. Other points to note are that:

• In terms of the PRS landlord organisation group, many of the respondents appear to be letting or property management agents, and hence the numbers may primarily relate to properties managed rather than owned.
• The SRS landlord group contains a majority of respondents who reported that they rent out 50 or fewer properties. Given the size of SRS landlords, some of these respondents may have selected the wrong respondent group or they may have selected the wrong number of properties.
• The SRS landlord organisation group includes 10 respondents who have reported that they rent out 51 or more properties. Albeit that they may have a wider role, these property numbers (and names where given) suggest these respondents are likely to be SRS landlords.

Tenancy types held by tenants

Tenants were asked what type of tenancy^[5] they have, and the results are set out in Table 3 below.

Please note that, where it is not possible for a respondent to have a tenancy of the type they selected (for example, a PRS tenant cannot have a Scottish Secure Tenancy), the figures have been italicised.

As would be expected, the considerable majority of PRS tenants, 91% of those answering the question, reported that they have a Private Residential Tenancy (PRT), while 91% of SRS tenants have a Scottish Secure Tenancy (SST).^[6]

Location of property/properties

Respondents were also asked in which local authority area(s) their property or properties were located. Respondents from all of the groups answered this question, and full results across all 32 local authorities are provided in Annex A. This illustrates a very broad spectrum, ranging from 2539 reports of properties in Glasgow to only five connections to Comhairle nan Eileen Siar and three to the Shetland Isles. Respondents were able to select more than one local authority area, although the majority (82% of PRS landlords and 78% of SRS landlords) selected only one, with a further 14% in both groups selecting two areas.

Table 4 below illustrates figures for landlords and tenants in the five most frequently selected local authority areas.

By some margin, respondents were most likely to have a connection to Glasgow (34% of all reports) or Edinburgh (31% of all reports).