Landlords in Scotland are raising rents every year to compensate for the limits of rent controls, Hamptons research shows.
Since April 2024 rent increases in Scotland have been limited to the lowest of: the ‘open market rent’, the rent proposed by the landlord, or the ‘permitted rent’ where the tenant is paying at least 6% below the market rate.
Two thirds (67%) of Scottish landlords increased the rent in both 2024 and 2025, compared to 58% across Great Britain as a whole.
David Fell, lead analyst at Hamptons, said: “The evidence from Scotland suggests that rent controls rarely work as intended.
“At best, they delay rent increases; at worst, they set a new benchmark where landlords feel compelled to increase their rents every year by the maximum allowed.
“Faced with uncertainty over future rules, many landlords choose to raise rents little and often rather than risk falling far below market levels.
“While the Renters’ Rights Act will give tenants more time and power to challenge rents at tribunal, the evidence suggests caps are only a sticking plaster.
“Longer term, the only way of making rents more affordable is to increase the number of homes available to rent and boost competition among landlords for tenants.”
For those landlords who did raise their rent, the size of the average increase was lower in Scotland (10.1%) compared to the Great Britain average (12.2%).
Since June 2025, the pace of rental growth on new lets has picked up in Scotland, despite rents falling across Great Britain.
Scottish rents rose by 2.5% from the same time last year, one of only two regions in Great Britain where rents rose by more than 2% over the last year.