One of Scotland’s leading lettings portals says the country’s rental market is in rough equilibrium - except for the continuing oil-fuelled exception that is Aberdeen.
CityLets, an independent portal which advertises 80,000 properties to let a year across its core Scottish and Northern Irish markets, says rents across Scotland now fetch an average of £678 per month, a modest one per cent up on a year ago.
“Driven by its two major cities, Edinburgh (up 0.4 per cent) and Glasgow (up 0.5 per cent), rental supply and tenant demand have been in relative equilibrium” says the firm.
But here comes Aberdeen, proving a persistent exception. Average rents in the city are up 8.2 per cent and now hit £1,028 - the first time a Scottish rent has hit four figures.
“Time-to-Let figures remain extremely low with a typical property being snapped up within a fortnight and one bedroom properties taking only nine days” says CityLets.
One postcode within the city, AB24, shows a huge 18.5 per cent annual rent rise while AB12 has a record high monthly rent of £1,472.
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Comments
Arnie I disagree, its has been over 15mths since the Legislation was introduced. Last year we were bombarded with rhetoric and doom and gloom how the market was being affected and Agents "already" reporting they were increasing rents by 5% to cover the loss of fees.
12 mths on only a handful of Agents have closed (mainly due to deposit legislation) and, as reported by Citylets, no surge in a "booming" market of rents.
The only change is that Agent's have had to "cut their cloth" accordingly and tenants are no longer subjected to fees. Whether we agree or not the rebalance of wealth/income is a huge success for Shelter and can only help their cause elsewhere
Mo - There is obviously going to be a lag between a decision being made and it affecting the price of rents.
As an example of how it is always the end user who ultimately pays the price. If you consider that Rents for non HMO properties have remained pretty constant since 1997 whilst rents for HMO properties have increased significantly. Thus tenants have ended up paying for the additional costs involved in HMO licensing.
I am sure that rents will rise in the not too distant future but no doubt Shelter will claim this report as a victory in the same manner as Communists did in the old Soviet Union before it all came crashing down.
This report gives a clear indication the Regulatory changes brought in last year have not had an any adverse affect on the rents in Scotland. Shelter will be well pleased with these figures.