202300361081 · FOI · released
Landlord Registration Scotland: FOI release
Information requested
a) the total number of properties registered by these landlords [referred to in the answer to FOI/202000090239: landlords registered at May 2019, owning one property, two properties, and three or more properties];
b) whether it may sometimes be possible for a registration to remain active (or counted for the purpose of this FOI even if the property is no longer leased.
Response
a) I enclose an Excel workbook containing the information you requested.
Please note the figures are taken from the Landlord Registration System, which 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 time elapsed since May 2019 has resulted in less robust data than usual being extracted from the system. In light of this, I have also provided a set of equivalent data from 1 July 2023. This will be more reliable.
b) It is possible for a registration to remain active past the time it is no longer needed, but for no more than three years. A landlord registration lasts for three years before expiring, and landlords who have stopped letting their property have the option to let it expire or to request their local authority to remove it.
You will notice also that the July 2023 data contains registrations with no properties. The reasons for this will include:
Buy to let mortgages, where a mortgage provider imposes conditions that the landlord must be registered before the lender will release the funds to purchase the rental property. Landlord Agent, acting as an agent on a rental property for another landlord and has no rental properties of their own. Rental property sales, where the landlord has sold their rental properties and is in the process of purchasing new ones.
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.