Private Rented Sector Stakeholder Engagement Group minutes: January 2026

Attendees and apologies

• Anna Gardiner (SLE),
• Aoife Deery (CAS)
• Ashley Campbell (CIH)
• Caroline Elgar (SAL)
• David Melhuish (SPF)
• Gordon Maloney (Living Rent)
• Ronnell Reffell (UK Finance)
• Timothy Douglas (Propertymark)
• Scottish Government officials

Items and actions

Welcome

The Chair opened the meeting and welcomed attendees.

Recent announcement on creation of a new housing agency

Members’ attention was drawn to the recent announcement of a new national housing agency for Scotland. This will focus on a number of key areas – large-scale affordable housing projects; rural and island housing; acquiring, preparing and releasing land; enabling infrastructure work to unlock stalled sites; and closer working with the Scottish National Investment Bank to make best use of private finance.   

Update on implementation of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025 (‘the Act’)

The pre-election period is expected to begin in mid-March, and is likely to affect timelines for implementation.

Rent Control

The first round of local authority rent assessment reports are due to be submitted by 31 May 2027. It is anticipated that the details of the remaining rent control measures will be set out in regulations ahead of this date.

One of the Cabinet Secretary for Housing’s priorities is for regulations setting out exemptions from rent control to be brought forward before the election. After this, other areas for regulations will be considered, including setting out circumstances where a modified rent cap will be applied, and setting out a verification process for exempt properties.

Officials will be seeking further engagement with stakeholders during this period (whilst working within pre-election period restrictions).

Other rented sector reform measures

The timetable for implementing the other rented sector reform measures in the Act is likely to be more complex, although the Scottish Government intends to set out an indicative timetable soon, although noting that this may change subject to the priorities of the incoming government.

It is the intention that many of the powers in the Act will be commenced ahead of the election, in order to allow for implementation in due course after the election.    

The Chair invited comments and questions:

Regarding the indicative timeline, with there by anything published similar to the UK Government’s phased timeline for the implementation of the Renters' Rights Act 2025?

• The aim is to do something similar, although the level of detail available ahead of the upcoming election might be a bit less. Any timetable given will be subject to update once the priorities of the incoming government are known.

Will guidance be available for local authorities, and will local authorities be ready to comply with the requirement to assess and report?

• The Scottish government is engaging with local authorities through the Local Authority Working Group, and the intention is to establish a subgroup to co-author guidance with local authorities, who will feed into the design of the guidance.
• Local authorities are keen to understand what is needed for the implementation of the measures in the Act, and work on this is ongoing.

Will there be a public consultation on this?

• Consultation is a requirement in the Act.

It is important that regulations are framed in a way which helps to avoid void periods in properties.

• The Scottish Government is keen to design a process which avoids voids and which is not administratively burdensome for landlords.
• The regulations which will be laid before the election will only cover the criteria for properties which will be exempt from rent controls. The verification process for these properties will be set out after the election, and will likely involve a proactive process.
• Regulations setting out any circumstances when a landlord in a rent control area may be allowed to increase the rent above the cap are likely to be developed after the election and will involve further engagement with the sector.  

What are the current considerations on data collection in the sector?

• The Cabinet Secretary for Housing set out ahead of stage 3 of the bill process that she is keen to see long term data collection on rents put in place alongside the landlord register.
• An amendment at stage 3 was brought forward giving power to require landlords to proactively provide information on their rents.
• This will be a long-term project – a lot of work will be needed on infrastructure in relation to the landlord register, alongside work with local authorities, who are the data controllers for that information.
• In the shorter term, Rent Service Scotland (‘RSS’) have increased staffing, and are collecting more records in order to increase the data which will be available at BRMA level to provide local authorities with more data to support the first round of rent assessments.
• Officials will give further updates on this work in due course.

Update on regulations under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025

Scottish Ministers have previously indicated their intention to lay regulations exempting Mid-market Rent (‘MMR’) and Build-to-Rent (‘BtR’) properties from rent control. These regulations will need to be laid by the end of January 2026 in order to meet parliamentary timescales ahead of the election.

Whilst officials would ideally have been able to share draft regulations with the Group ahead of laying, this will unfortunately not be possible due to the tight timescales. However, officials will share more detail when it is possible to do so.

Build-to-Rent

The proposed definition of Build-to-Rent (BtR) property will include properties which are built, converted or renovated from derelict properties, which form part of a relevant development and are included in the property owner’s entry on the Landlord Register.

A ‘relevant development’ will be a group of properties, covered by the same planning permission, owned by the same owner, which have remained in the private rented sector since completion. The minimum size for a relevant development will be six properties.

Some of the details are still subject to change as there are still some Ministerial decisions outstanding.

The Chair invited comments and questions:

Is there scope for the minimum size of six properties to be disapplied for developments which are subject to Rural and Islands Housing funding, as six properties would be large for a rural development?

Rents in rural areas can often be lower, and payback periods can be much longer. There are concerns that this may disincentivise rural BtR developments, as viability can already be difficult, and loan interest can be above rent rates.

• The Scottish Government recognises the value of new housing in rural areas, and has been conscious that developments in rural areas are often smaller, which is why the minimum number of properties is set at a relatively low number.
• There may also be some cases where the ability for the landlord to increase rents above the cap may be better suited to take account of the circumstances of individual properties.

In cases where developments have other use classes on the ground floor, will this disqualify them from the BtR exemption?

• Other uses on the same site would not disqualify a property from the BtR exemption.

There is a concern that this will not support average landlords with BtR properties.

• Minister’s intention is not to exempt every new build property in Scotland, and this is reflected in the minimum size of development set out in the regulations.

Noting the Housing Investment Taskforce’s points on the ability of taxation to impact inflation, and recommendation of a review of taxation, is there a risk that the similarity of the six property limit to the relief from the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax Additional Dwelling Supplement (‘ADS’) for purchases of six or more dwellings could make it less likely that ADS is reviewed in the future? Would it be better to separate the definition from taxation categories?

• It is not the intention to permanently link the ADS relief criteria and the definition of BtR. However, the ADS relief criteria is one of the existing definitions of a portfolio, which is one reason why this was used as the minimum number of properties.

Consideration should be given to including all new-build properties which have planning permission for use in the PRS, even single properties.

• The intention for a property to be in the PRS is certainly important and was considered in developing the definition. However, the intention to rent a property is not a separate category in planning permission.
• As intended use can change after planning permission is granted, this could lead to properties being treated differently based on original intention rather than ultimate use.

MMR

The proposed definition of MMR for the purposes of rent control will include properties where the landlord is restricted from increasing rent above MMR rent levels (the median of market rent levels in the Broad Rental Market Area), for example where rent restrictions are a condition of government funding.  

The Scottish Government is keen to ensure that the definition covers both MMR models which benefit from Scottish Government funding, and those which do not, as long as a contractual restriction on rent applies.

The Chair invited comments and questions:

Will there be any impact from the work RSS is doing in collecting more data?

• It is possible that more granular data will be available in the future than the BRMA data, but this would be a longer term consideration. However, the Scottish Government is conscious that improving rental data for the purposes of rent control can potentially help in other areas as well.

Officials are happy to have further conversations on this.

Any other business

Members cleared the draft meeting notes of the previous two meetings.

Members queried when the RRA discrimination provisions were due to come into force in Scotland – officials will check this with relevant colleagues [now confirmed as 1 May 2026].