Private landlord data: FOI release

Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.


Information requested

1. The number of residential properties owned by private landlords.

2. The number of residential properties owned by private landlords in each of the last ten years.

3. Detailed landlord information, including

  1. Landlord Name/ID
  2. Property postcode
  3. Annual rental yield per property (if available)
  4. Landlord's primary residence

Response

I enclose a copy of the information for point 1 in CSV format as requested.

The Landlord Registration system is an administrative system used primarily to manage the registration of landlords and rental properties, and has not been designed to produce robust statistical figures on the sector. Therefore it is not possible to extract an accurate time series of data from its database in order to answer point 2.

There have been requests in the past for numbers of properties owned by landlords. I provide links to these requests below:

In addition I have been provided by colleagues with a snapshot taken in September 2022. I enclose this information in CSV format.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested in point 2, or any of the information requested in point 3.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested.

The Scottish Government does not have the information you have asked for because we are not the data controllers for the Scottish Landlord Register.

If you are interested in the information we were unable to provide you may wish to contact the data controllers for the information held on the database. Contact details for the 32 Local Authorities are available on the landlord registration website at https://www.landlordregistrationscotland.gov.uk/localauthority-contact.

Please note that the Scottish Landlord Register does not seek information from landlords about rental yield. Here is a link to what is requested from landlords: Information you will need - Scottish Landlord Register.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

Contact

Please quote the FOI reference
Central Correspondence Unit
Email: contactus@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000

The Scottish Government
St Andrew's House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG

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