The latest Citylets Quarterly Report for Q1 2025 has been published – focus is on PRS and the Housing Bill. With caps for intra-tenancy rent rises now removed, Scotland’s PRS operates as a free market again. Rent controls remain a feature of the Housing Bill but with optimism now for material positive new amendments
Commentary from Will Scarlett below (p.18)
SNP unlocks £3.5bn in housing investment
Maybe. The Housing Bill is moving through Stage 2 which will consider 250+ amendments and must be completed by 29 May. Meanwhile, the all-important consultation on exemptions for BTR and MMR is running for 12 weeks from April to June. This is where any stakeholder who wants to see increased availability of new build, purpose built and professionally managed housing at a sensible rent (resulting from the return of largescale private investment into BTR and MMR) must participate in the consultation. An acceptable exemption criterion (by which I mean a set of exemptions that are acceptable to institutional investors) may only be achievable if relevant stakeholders make representation ideally in a co-ordinated fashion. Following external analysis of the exemption consultation responses, it is hoped that Stage 3 (a one day debate) takes place in October/ November (after summer recess), with royal assent to follow four weeks thereafter.
This assumes that politics do not get in the way of common sense and that the Bill is not ‘talked out’ up until Holyrood elections in May 2026. Given the housing emergency, it would surely be a desirable, but deeply ironic, headline that stated, “SNP unlocks £3.5bn in housing investment”.
