Nearly a third of private renters in Scotland are having a hard time covering their rent, with many cutting back on essentials just to stay housed.
That’s according to new data compiled by SafeDeposits Scotland, whose charitable trust used sources like the Scottish Household Survey and census figures to form a sample of 1,000 private sector tenants. The snapshot isn’t comforting. Rent stress is now a widespread reality, with affordability slipping further out of reach.
Rent Payments Becoming a Monthly Stress Test
For 32% of tenants, paying rent each month isn’t just a challenge — it’s a real burden.
Of those, 8% said they find it very difficult to cover their rent. That’s not just a minor squeeze; it’s a struggle that keeps recurring month after month. Another 27% say it’s neither easy nor difficult — which in policy terms often means it’s edging into discomfort but hasn’t quite tipped over yet.
Only a third of those surveyed said paying rent was easy. The rest are somewhere on a sliding scale of pressure.
And the pressure doesn’t end with rent. The study found that 49% of tenants regularly have to cut back on household items. That includes everything from groceries to toiletries, energy use, even clothing.
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32% say rent is hard to pay
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49% cut back on basic goods to afford housing
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27% are stuck in the middle — not struggling, but not secure either
That paints a picture of a sector that’s barely keeping its head above water.
Calls for a Strategy — But Who’s Listening?
Jennifer Harris from SafeDeposits Scotland didn’t sugarcoat things.
“Affordable homes to rent should be a cornerstone of the sector across Scotland,” she said, echoing what tenant advocacy groups have long demanded. “Our research shows the struggles many tenants continue to face in paying their rent each month.”
And there’s a call for more than just band-aid solutions. Harris wants a strategy that looks at both supply and support:
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More homes available to rent, to keep prices in check
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Real help with incomes, especially for those hit hardest
She also warned that freezing housing benefit rates was making things worse — especially for people whose only fallback is already stretched thin.
The Government’s Position: Caps and Promises
The Scottish Government insists protections are still in place.
From April 1, private renters still have the right to challenge rent increases above market rates. The government says it’s committed to fairer long-term rent structures, and that’s part of what the new Housing (Scotland) Bill is meant to address.
According to a spokesperson, the bill — currently moving through Holyrood — would introduce a new framework where councils can declare rent control zones. Within those, rent hikes would be capped to inflation plus 1%, but with a hard ceiling of 6%.
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To help tenants now, the government says it’s putting £7.9 million into discretionary housing payments for this financial year. That’s supposed to help councils patch shortfalls caused by UK welfare cuts — including frozen Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates.
Still, critics say it’s too little, too slow, and doesn’t address the core supply issues.
Pushback From the Property Sector
Not everyone’s on board with tighter rent rules.
Propertymark, a major industry group, has warned against what it calls short-sighted policymaking. Their head of policy, Timothy Douglas, said recent controls have backfired.
“They’ve triggered rent rises and halted investment across Scotland,” he said, pointing to the chilling effect on landlords and developers alike.
Since temporary rent caps ended in April and rent adjudication returned, Douglas says it’s crucial not to repeat the same mistakes. Without long-term vision, he argues, the system risks driving up costs and pushing more councils to declare housing emergencies.
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His message was blunt: rethink the taxes and policies that discourage private investment, or risk watching the rental market fall apart piece by piece.
Who’s Really Paying the Price?
Behind the numbers are real people — students sharing flats with strangers, single parents juggling part-time jobs, pensioners barely scraping by on fixed incomes.
And for many of them, the idea of saving for a mortgage or moving to a better area isn’t even on the table anymore. Rent eats up too much of their income for that to be an option.
A 2024 report from the Resolution Foundation backs this up. It found that the median rent in Scotland eats up 34% of household income for private renters — way above the 30% threshold commonly used to define housing affordability.
Here’s how affordability compares across tenures:
| Housing Type | % Income Spent on Housing |
|---|---|
| Private Renters | 34% |
| Social Housing Tenants | 24% |
| Homeowners (Mortgage) | 22% |
There’s a clear trend: private renters are the most squeezed, yet they often have the fewest protections and the most volatile lease terms.
The Bigger Picture: Rent Control vs. Reality
The debate over rent control has been dragging on for years — but the stakes feel higher now.
Scotland’s housing emergency declarations (from Edinburgh to Argyll and Bute) show just how fragile things have become. Each new measure passed through Holyrood feels more like crisis management than long-term planning.
Critics say the proposed 6% cap still allows for rent inflation. Supporters argue it’s better than nothing — especially with market rents in places like Glasgow and Edinburgh up by double digits over the past two years.
Meanwhile, landlords complain they’re being squeezed too. Rising interest rates, stricter regulations, and local taxes have pushed many to sell off properties or hike rent just to break even.
Tenants and landlords both say the system is broken. Just not for the same reasons.
