Tenants bearing cost as private rents rise fastest in Glasgow
GLASGOW has seen the fastest private sector rent rises in the last year according to a property survey.
Tenants in the city have had rises of 14 pert cent, the highest in Scotland.
The average rent, according to Your Move’s rental tracker was £616 per month compared to the national average of £574 per month.
The property website said this was good news for landlords with the rental yield of properties increasing.
Brian Moran, Letting Director of Your Move Scotland said: “After a prolonged period of excellent growth, the Highlands and Islands region was replaced as Scotland’s fastest growing rental market.
“Despite stellar growth in the Highlands and Islands, the Glasgow and Clyde region was able to post stronger rent increases in the last year.”
While landlords could be satisfied with their investment, it is not good news for tenants, according to Glasgow MSP Pauline McNeill.
Ms McNeill has been campaigning for legal controls on rent rises and for greater protection for tenants with a rent cap at the heart of her plans for a Mary Barbour law.
Ms McNeil, said: “It is time for government to step in. The housing market has forced many people into the private rented sectors. There’s no other choice and landlords know this and there’s been a level of unacceptably high rents in Glasgow. It’s too important for landlords to just be left to decide what’s an acceptable rent. This is people’s lives we are talking about and I think there needs to be government intervention.”
The MSP said that young people are increasingly priced out of the housing market and have little or no other option other than the private rented sector.
She added: “So many people are really squeezed because of rent and its pushing them into poverty
“Housing is too central to the question of reducing poverty for it to be left to individual landlords it is time for change and its time for the government to lay down the law in relation to the highest rents you can charge.”
Councillor Christy Mearns, housing spokesman for Glasgow Greens said: “Scottish Government is failing to grasp the urgency of the crisis in private rented housing, with rents continuing to spiral well beyond inflation.
“This is an issue which disproportionately impacts younger people and risks condemning a generation to
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“It’s now clear that the Rent Pressure Zone policy introduced by the SNP to allow some form of rent control is inadequate, as the lack of data which is needed to set up a zone means any change could take years when we need action now.
“It’s vital that the Council and Scottish Government take urgent further steps to strengthen the rights of those in the private rented sector to secure, affordable tenancies.”