Private sector rent statistics: 2010 - 2021

Broad Rental Market Area Profile – West Lothian

Note in the following text and charts that average rents that have changed within +/- 0.5% could be considered as being fairly similar to previous periods.

Average (mean) 2 bedroom rents in West Lothian have been lower than the Scotland average in each year since 2010, with the average rent in 2021 being £642 per month, compared to the Scotland average of £693.

Between 2020 and 2021, average rents have increased for 1 bedroom (1.6%), 2 bedroom (0.9%), 3 bedroom (2.3%) and 4 bedroom (5.1%) properties, and have decreased for 1 bedroom shared properties (-1.7%), which compares to CPI inflation of 1.5% across this time period. Although some caution is needed when interpreting the changes over time for 4 bedroom and 1 bedroom shared property size categories, given the smaller sample numbers for these categories.

Between 2010 and 2021, average rents have increased for all property sizes, ranging from 20.0% for 1 bedroom shared properties up to 39.3% for 4 bedroom properties, which compares to CPI inflation of 24.3% across this time period.

For 3 and 4 bedroom properties, increases at the top end of the market (upper quartile) between 2010 and 2021 have generally been higher than increases in the bottom end (lower quartile) increasing the gap in rents between the top and bottom of the market slightly.