Professional body raises concerns over shake-up of Scotland's rented sector

Scotland’s rented sector reform must be balanced and address the “needs and rights” of letting agents and their landlords, a professional body has argued.

Membership group Propertymark said the “tenant-centred approach” being taken to further reform the rented sector was a “further erosion of landlords’ rights”, particularly around their ability to seek possession of their properties.

The body for estate and letting agents, commercial agents, auctioneers, valuers and inventory providers, which has some 18,000 members, also describes a proposal to ban winter evictions as “unnecessary and unworkable”.

Propertymark said it was re-enforcing its opposition to rent controls and recommends politicians refocus their efforts on policies that will “increase the supply of homes across all tenures as a long-term solution to addressing affordability and improving housing quality”.

The organisation was responding to the consultation on the Scottish Government’s draft rented sector strategy, A New Deal for Tenants.

Daryl McIntosh, Propertymark’s policy manager for the UK devolved nations, said: “This strategy proposes fundamental and far-reaching changes that are tenant-centred and in some cases lack the data-led evidence that they are completely necessary.

“By considering tenants in isolation, policymakers are showing little regard for the legal rights of landlords and their letting agents.

“The sector is already under huge strain and desperately in need of more investment, not less, so we urge the Scottish Government to carefully balance its reforms to ensure any interventions to achieve short-term objectives do not lead to market failure in the long run.”

Propertymark launched in February 2017 combining a number of groups.