202300352986 · FOI · released
Scottish Landlord Register: FOI release
Information requested
How many landlords are currently registered on the Scottish Landlord Register? How has this number changed over the last 10 years? What is the breakdown of registered landlords per local authority area across Scotland?
Response
I enclose a copy of the information you requested.
For context, the Landlord Register came into effect following the Antisocial Behaviour Act 2004, with associated monitoring information available from 2007. Local authorities are responsible for the administration and enforcement of landlord registration, and are the data controllers of the information on the landlord registration IT system for landlords in their area. The Scottish Government has received monthly aggregate information extracted from the system since late 2018, including on the total number of active registrations and the number of properties that these relate to, which are set out in the tables enclosed. Prior to 2018 we received updates directly from local authorities. The figures are snapshots from the month and year noted above each table, between 2014 and 2023, for the month of March where available.
However, the Landlord Registration System is an administrative system used primarily to manage the registration of landlords and rental properties, and has not been designed to produce robust statistical figures on the sector. The figures presented should therefore be considered in the context of data quality issues which include impacts from changes to IT systems over time, a risk of duplicated data and double counting of rental properties in certain instances for joint owners, as well as data issues stemming from any potential lags in the provision of information by landlords on changes to circumstances to existing registrations. I would therefore advise caution in the use of these figures if making any specific comparisons over time or between local authority areas, especially the number of properties within the 2017 – 2019 period which have been subject to significant data quality issues and are not considered to be accurate counts of the number of properties across these years.
About FOI
The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.