The Private Housing Rent Control (Exempt Property) (Scotland) Regulations 2026 - business and regulatory impact assessment
The business and regulatory impact assessment for The Private Housing Rent Control (Exempt Property) (Scotland) Regulations 2026.
Footnotes
1 Housing (Scotland) Bill: business and regulatory impact assessment summary
2 rented-sector-reforms-housing-scotland-bill-final-business-regulatory-impact-assessment.pdf
3 06 November 2025
5 Agreement with Scottish Green Party
6 A New Deal for Tenants - draft strategy: consultation
7 Housing (Scotland) Bill (Scottish Parliament website)
9 Since 2025 population estimates were not available at the time of finalising the BRIA, 2024 population estimates for the respective countries have been used to derive the 2025 BtR rates.
10 There is some evidence that BtR developments might have been swopped to Purpose Built Student Accommodation; see for example Scarlett's Build to Rent Scotland - Autumn 2025 Review
11 Housing Investment Taskforce
12 Housing Investment Taskforce report
13 Housing (Scotland) Bill: consultation
14 Housing (Scotland) Bill consultation: interim partial analysis
15 Housing (Scotland) Bill - use of powers: consultation analysis - final report
16 Consultation on use of powers in Housing (Scotland) Bill Analysis of responses to the consultation exercise Final report, pdf page 9
17 Kholodilin, K. A. & Kohl, S. Do rent controls and other tenancy regulations affect new construction? Some answers from long-run historical evidence
18 When estimating regressions over the entire period for which data was available, the researchers found that the impact of rent control on construction was not statistically significant. However, they noted that the World Wars were exceptional periods for housing policy, which is why they also ran regressions for the period since 1960.
19 Because the purpose of housing is not always apparent in the planning data (particularly whether it is for private rent or owner occupation), they were unable to restrict their housing construction variable to construction for rental housing only.
20 Relatedly, as noted above, some of the reduction in BtR units in Scotland in recent years could have involved switching developments to Purpose Built Student Accommodation.
21 Controls applying to rent levels are generally described as first-generation rent controls, while those applying to rent increases are referred to as second- or third-generation rent controls, which have been designed to limit the perverse incentives that have been reported as applying to first-generation systems. See Annex B, Summary of Literature on Rent Controls, Rented sector reform: Housing (Scotland) Bill: business and regulatory impact assessment
22 Noting that rent controls can only be applied to an area if, after considering an assessment of rent conditions in the area, the Scottish Ministers are satisfied that restricting rent increases in the area:
(a) is necessary and proportionate for the purpose of protecting the social and economic interests of tenants in the area, and
(b) is a necessary and proportionate control of landlords’ use of their property in the area.
23 Since tenants have the same type of tenancies as other private sector tenants, and may not be aware that their property is part of a development subject to MMR restrictions, it is difficult to identify MMR properties from household and tenant surveys.
24 See AHSP workbook at Housing statistics quarterly update: new housebuilding and affordable housing supply, where the terminology Affordable Rent is used.
25 For some schemes, in particular loan-funded MMR, the units are typically only required to be in the MMR for a specified period of time.
26 Mid market rent (MMR) analysis: December 2020 to February 2025
27 British Property Foundation Build-to-Rent Q3 2025 (Main publications page: British Property Federation, Research and briefings publications)
28 Both paragraphs, Consultation on use of powers in Housing (Scotland) Bill Analysis of responses to the consultation exercise Final report, pdf page 22
29 Consultation on use of powers in Housing (Scotland) Bill Analysis of responses to the consultation exercise Final report, pdf pages 8-9
30 Consultation on use of powers in Housing (Scotland) Bill Analysis of responses to the consultation exercise Final report, pdf pages 8-9
31 Mid market rent (MMR) analysis: December 2020 to February 2025
32 Tenants could give more than one reason why they decided to rent their property.
33 Although, as set out elsewhere in this BRIA, there may also be circumstances where non-exempt landlords in a rent control area are permitted to increase the rent for their property above the rent cap, so this would not represent a straightforward comparison between the experiences of all tenants in exempt properties vs the experience of all tenants in properties which are not exempt.
34 Who lives in Build-to-Rent?, July 2025
35 Consultation on use of powers in Housing (Scotland) Bill Analysis of responses to the consultation exercise Final report, pdf page 22
36 Consultation on use of powers in Housing (Scotland) Bill Analysis of responses to the consultation exercise Final report, pdf page 23
38 ‘Consultation’, Rented sector reform: Housing (Scotland) Bill: business and regulatory impact assessment
39 RRG, Housing (Scotland) Bill: letter to Cabinet Secretary for Housing
40 A summary of this literature is set out in an Annex to the Business and regulatory impact assessment for the rented sector reform measures in the Housing (Scotland) Bill
41 A New Deal for Tenants - draft strategy: consultation
42 A New Deal for Tenants: consultation analysis
43 Landlord and tenant engagement questionnaire on rented sector reform
44 Rented sector reform: landlord and tenant engagement questionnaire - analysis report
45 Rented sector reform: landlord and tenant engagement questionnaire - analysis of email responses
46 Housing (Scotland) Bill: consultation
47 Housing (Scotland) Bill consultation: interim partial analysis
48 Housing (Scotland) Bill - use of powers: consultation analysis - final report
49 Rent Control and Private Rented Sector Reform Measures Stakeholder Group - Overview and Minutes
50 Housing (Scotland) Bill - use of powers: consultation analysis - final report
56 Some consideration on the potential cumulative impacts of rented sector reforms was included in the Rented sector reform: Housing (Scotland) Bill: business and regulatory impact assessment
57 New section 17B of the Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Act 2016, which will be inserted by section 22 of the 2025 Act
58 Consumer Scotland Act 2020 - Explanatory Notes
59 Either:
(a) the median of market rent levels for that size of property in that Broad Rental Market
Area, or
(b) where there are no market rent levels available for that size of property in that Broad
Rental Market Area, the median of market rent levels for a property of similar size in that Broad Rental Market Area.
60 Legal Aid Impact Test, Rented sector reform: Housing (Scotland) Bill: business and regulatory impact assessment
61 Section 27, Housing (Scotland) Act 2025
63 See section on Foregone Rent from P30 onwards in the Housing (Scotland) Bill Financial Memorandum
64 See section on Foregone Rent from P42 onwards, as well as Annex C on P139, in the Rented Sector Reforms – Housing (Scotland) Bill – Final Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment
65 Detailed rent data for Scotland is available from 2010 onwards in the Scottish Government’s Private Sector Rent Statistics, Scotland, 2010 to 2025. Note that this dataset is primarily sourced from new-let rents.