Landlord registration statistics (2007–present): FOI release

Information requested

"Request for landlord registration statistics (2007–present)

I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.

I have previously obtained data on the number of active PRS landlord registrations and the number of registered PRS properties in Scotland at year-end from December to 07 to Dec 19, although no data was provided for 2012 or 2017.

In addition, while I note that monthly data are available from January 2022 onwards via the Scottish Government publication (Scottish Landlord Register Statistics), monthly data is not published from 2007-despite it existing. I understand that there are some questions over the robustness of the data but it remains the best source of information available.

Accordingly, I would be grateful if you could provide the following:

The total number of active landlord registrations and registered properties in Scotland for December 2012 and December 2017.

A copy of the full monthly time series from 2007 for active landlord registrations and registered properties.

I would prefer to receive this information in Excel or CSV format if available.

Please let me know if clarification is required."

Response

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.

Due to a change in the system used to host the landlord registration data in 2017, we do not hold the total number of active landlord registrations and registered properties in Scotland for December 2017 that you have asked for in the first item of your request.

In response to the second item in your request for a copy of the full monthly time series from 2007 for active landlord registrations and registered properties, we have provided some of this in the attached spreadsheet. However, as monthly data was not recorded until February 2011, we are unable to provide a monthly breakdown of the total number of active landlord registrations and registered properties in Scotland for the full period requested. Therefore we have provided the requested data, where it is held, from February 2011 to August 2025 but, as noted, we are unable to provide this for the period from 2007 up to January 2011, inclusive, as the monthly data was not recorded.

We have, however, included a yearly breakdown of the data from 2007 to 2010 in the attached document but please note that the data for 2007 is up to 3 December 2007 rather than 31 December. The data for 2008 to 2010 is up to 31 December for each year.

In addition to the lack of monthly data for 2007 to 2010, there are also other months where the monthly data is unavailable and we are unable to provide these. The missing months, and reasons, are:

• Monthly data was not recorded between March 2011 and August 2011, inclusive.
• Monthly data is unavailable between June 2017 and September 2018, inclusive, due to a change in the system and reporting functionality being unavailable during this period.

There are also additional issues with some of the data presented:

• The monthly data for February to May 2017 may be inaccurate as this was a transition period between one hosting system and another.
• The monthly data for December 2019 was taken at 6 January 2020 and therefore may include some registrations or properties added in early January 2020

Lastly, due to a technical issue, the data for the properties between October 2018 and December 2019, inclusive, is incorrect. This is due to the system counting properties with multiple owners once each for every owner (i.e. a property with 3 registered landlord owners would be counted 3 times). Valid property figures are unavailable for this period. Please note that the active registrations total was not affected by this issue.

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested in the attached Excel spreadsheet.

This spreadsheet contains an worksheet with a explanatory notes regarding the data contained within, noting the above issues and other items of note regarding this data.

As you are aware, monthly statistics for September 2025 onwards will be published on an on-going basis on the following page: Housing statistics: Scottish Landlord Register data - gov.scot.

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.

FOI 202500486687 - Information Released - Annex

File type

Excel document

File size

108.2 kB