Scots tenants face 'astronomical' rent increases while landlords rake in 'huge profits'

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Scots looking to rent a home face "astronomical" costs after the average price of a two bed property jumped by 14.3 per cent in the last year.Official figures published today show the private rental market in Scotland is overheating with landlords hiking bills across the country.The average rent for a two bedroom property - the most common size available - now stands at an average of £841 per month, up £105 per month compared with the previous year.But the figure is far worse in hotspots like Greater Glasgow, where average rents have leapt by an eye-watering 22.3 per cent.The Scottish Government rent cap only applies to existing tenants, meaning it does not cover people to looking to sign a new lease.Housing campaigners have called for the policy to be extended beyond March next year on risk seeing more Scots made homeless.Aditi Jehangir, secretary of Living Rent, said: "Year after year, while the rest of us have been forced to tighten our belts, landlords have raked in huge profits, hiking up rents and forcing tenants out of the places they called home."The rent cap is a huge relief for tenants already in homes in the private rented sector, however as the hikes in new market rents demonstrate, unless the Scottish Government acts now, thousands of tenants will be faced with astronomical increases when the cap runs out in March."From March, tenants need to be able to properly challenge rent increases until the Scottish Government introduces rent controls to cap rents between tenancies and bring rents down."The Scottish Conservatives said soaring rents were a "predictable" cause of the government's failure to build more homes.Miles Briggs, the party's housing spokesman, said: "This is the entirely predictable result of the