A loophole in Scottish rent controls has allowed private landlords to raise rents higher than anywhere else in the UK.
The Scottish government this spring introduced a temporary rent cap limiting annual rises to 3% in most cases. But it allowed landlords to go higher if they were drawing up a new tenancy agreement.
Rental figures from Zoopla suggest that Scotland’s landlords have used the clause to maximise the rent for new tenancies, which rose by 12.7% in the year to July, faster than the next hottest markets of London and the north-west of England.
Asking rents in Edinburgh and Glasgow rose at a rate of 15.5% and 13.7% per year – the highest of any UK city.
