Rent inflation slows as 'reluctant landlords' flood market

Published on Friday 23 January 2009 19:36

SCOTTISH rental prices were just 2.1 per cent higher in the last quarter of 2008 than the same period of 2007, the slowest growth rate for a year.

The slowdown was due partly to a increase in the number of reluctant landlords – homeowners moving house but unable to sell their original property – coming on to the market, according to online letting group Citylets.

It said that by the end of 2008 it was marketing 68 per cent more properties than a year earlier.

Thomas Ashdown, managing director of Citylets, warned that as supply continued to outstrip demand it would take landlords longer to let properties.

"Increased choice for tenants has begun to impact on the length of time it takes to let a property," he said.

Citylets' research found that flats in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen took between five and nine days longer to rent between October and December than in the same period the previous year.

The trend was partly a result of more people moving into bigger flats with friends or colleagues in a bid to save money in the economic downturn, said Ashdown.

"By sharing the rent on a bigger property, they are paying less per month than they would have done on a one-bed flat," he said.