Private sector rent statistics: 2010 - 2021

This publication presents statistics on average private sector rent levels in Scotland by Broad Rental Market Area and size of property, for the years 2010 to 2021.

This document is part of a collection


Annex C – Methodology (Source Data, Sampling Methodology, Sample Sizes)

This publication uses data from the Rent Service Scotland 'Market Evidence Database', which is a database used to meet the needs of determining annual Local Housing Allowance levels.

The market evidence data on private rents is sourced through a variety of means, including advertised rental information, private landlord and letting agent returns, and mailshot initiatives.

The database excludes any rents related to social housing, mid-market rents, halls of residence, and private tenancies known to be the subject of housing benefit and regulated tenancies.

In the latest year to end September 2021, an estimated 87% of records were based on advertised rents, with the remainder being based on sitting tenant rents from landlord returns.

The data collected includes a minimum level of address, property attributes and tenancy details. Rents relating to studio/bedsit properties, properties with 5 or more bedrooms, and bed and breakfast lodgings have been excluded from this publication due to small sample sizes. Rents for bedrooms in shared properties are presented as 'rent only' figures, i.e. do not include the additional cost of shared services where these are known.

If a particular property has more than one piece of market evidence available in a given year, then only the most recent item of evidence for that year has been used in the average rent calculations for this publication.

The private rented sector is de-regulated, meaning that landlords are free to charge an open market rent for their property. There is currently no legal obligation for landlords or agents to provide Government, or any other organisations, with details of the rents achieved on their lettings. Therefore rent officers have to actively seek, collect, validate and maintain a suitable dataset.

There is no requirement for rent officers to collect 100% of rents that are agreed between landlord and tenant. Neither is it realistic to assume that all landlords and letting agents would be able to co-operate with this requirement.

Rent Officers instead aim to capture a representative sample of around 10% of private rents based on the total number of records obtained (the amount of records used in average rent calculations may be slightly less than this due to removal of any multiple records for a single property/address in a given year). Landlord registration data and census data is used as a baseline for establishing and monitoring the total sample proportion that is aimed to be achieved.

As rent officers do not have access to every letting that takes place in the market the use of a random sample is not feasible, and given the variations in the size of the markets in each Broad Rental Market Area a simple quota based sample would be unlikely to produce representative results either. The sample should ideally reflect the profile of the market in terms of the type of property, its distribution, and the letting sources within each Broad Rental Market Area.

There are no definitive measures for these so rent officers monitor local market activity and take every opportunity to acquire feedback from landlords, agents and tenants. This market intelligence means that rent officers are able to continually evaluate the composition of the list of rents used for Local Housing Allowance, and where necessary divert resources from their regular program of data collection to address any perceived weakness in the data.

This combined approach of regular and targeted collection based on market intelligence aims to produce a representative sample for each property size for each Broad Rental Market Area. This approach in turn reflects the structure of the legislation which allows for rent officer judgment on a number of these factors.

The private rented sector is very complex and is continually changing as it reacts to market forces. The overall target of a 10% sample therefore only represents a guide figure at Broad Rental Market Area level. Local knowledge, confidence testing and interpretation of other available data may be applied to refine the guide level. This contributes towards achieving a representative sample for each property size category at a Broad Rental Market Area level.

It is important to note that the data collected on individual rents may encompass different property types and addresses for each data collection year. The Broad Rental Market Area Profiles in Section 9 show the sample sizes for each rental area. It can be seen that there have been some variations in the number of records by rental areas over time, and also the proportions by size of property. Some of this may be due to changes in the underlying rental stock over time, and some may be due to sampling variations over time.

Also note that some methodological improvements were made to the previous publication, which have been carried forward again to this publication, in relation to how Scotland level average rent figures have been estimated. These include the use of a weighted stock approach, which is set in further detail in Section 8.

Table C1 and Chart C1 below illustrate the different sample data profiles by rental market area.

It can be seen that the sample data profiles differ by rental area. For example for Dumfries and Galloway, 1 bedroom properties make up 17% of all sample records and 3 bedroom properties make up 22% of the total. This compares to Perth and Kinross for which 27% of records are 1 bedroom properties, and 16% of records are 3 bedroom properties. This emphasises that it is generally not appropriate to compare an overall "average" rent figure (averaged across all property sizes) between different areas of the country.

Table C1 - Sample Sizes by Broad Rental Market Area and size of property, 2021 (year to end Sept)
1 bedroom shared 1 bedroom 2 bedrooms 3 bedrooms 4 bedrooms
Scotland 2,056 7,399 15,573 5,151 1,654
Aberdeen and Shire 240 1,027 1,888 495 191
Argyll and Bute 34 107 193 82 15
Ayrshires 128 503 785 405 76
Dumfries and Galloway 127 139 315 177 52
Dundee and Angus 199 525 906 233 122
East Dunbartonshire 22 56 152 53 20
Fife 120 304 901 319 126
Forth Valley 46 223 696 220 54
Greater Glasgow 328 1,376 3,029 726 209
Highland and Islands 196 308 809 334 65
Lothian 340 1,324 2,906 861 450
North Lanarkshire 28 203 523 258 44
Perth and Kinross 49 236 400 143 56
Renfrewshire / Inverclyde 49 468 724 267 30
Scottish Borders 42 173 263 141 41
South Lanarkshire 31 229 580 238 51
West Dunbartonshire 37 97 163 54 10
West Lothian 40 101 340 145 42

Notes:

Total figures exclude any studio properties, properties with 5 or more bedrooms, or room rents associated with bed and breakfast lodgings

If there is more than one piece of market evidence for a particular address in a given year, then only the most recent piece of evidence is counted

Chart C1 - 2021 Sample Data Profiles

It is also important to note that there are some sample data profiles that have changed over time by property size, which may also introduce some bias into comparing overall Broad Rental Market Area averages over time.

Chart C2 shows an example of this for Argyll and Bute, for which the sample data profile has changed over time both in the total number of records and the proportion in each property size category. The proportion of records relating to 1 bedroom shared properties increased from 3% in 2010 to 16% in 2013, after which this percentage has dropped to 8% in 2021. Whilst the proportion of records relating to 2 bedroom properties decreased from 43% to 34% from 2010 to 2014 but then increased to 45% in 2021. This would likely add bias to the trends if an overall "average" rent figure was calculated (averaged across all property sizes) each year.

Chart C2 - An Example of Sample Data Profiles that can Change Over Time - Argyll and Bute broad rental market area

Table C3 and Chart C3 show the proportions of the total samples that are within each Broad Rental Market Area each year, by property size.

For most property sizes each rental area has a relatively consistent proportion each year, however there have been some changes over time. For example in the 2020, the proportion of all 2 bedroom records that are located in Lothian increased by 4 percentage points compared to the previous year, and the proportion of all 4 bedroom records that are located in Lothian increased by 7 percentage points compared to the previous year.

Table C3 - Sample numbers as proportions of the Scotland total

1 bedroom properties
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Aberdeen and Shire 10% 13% 12% 10% 11% 10% 12% 11% 11% 11% 15% 14%
Argyll and Bute 1% 2% 2% 1% 2% 2% 2% 2% 2% 2% 2% 1%
Ayrshires 7% 6% 5% 4% 4% 5% 5% 5% 5% 6% 6% 7%
Dumfries and Galloway 1% 1% 2% 2% 2% 2% 2% 2% 2% 2% 2% 2%
Dundee and Angus 6% 8% 8% 9% 8% 7% 6% 5% 5% 5% 6% 7%
East Dunbartonshire 1% 2% 1% 1% 1% 2% 2% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1%
Fife 4% 3% 4% 5% 3% 5% 5% 5% 5% 4% 4% 4%
Forth Valley 5% 4% 4% 4% 4% 5% 6% 5% 4% 3% 3% 3%
Greater Glasgow 16% 14% 17% 18% 21% 19% 20% 20% 21% 21% 17% 19%
Highland and Islands 3% 4% 4% 4% 5% 5% 4% 4% 3% 3% 3% 4%
Lothian 23% 18% 22% 21% 18% 17% 15% 19% 19% 19% 17% 18%
North Lanarkshire 3% 3% 3% 2% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 4% 4% 3%
Perth and Kinross 3% 4% 4% 3% 4% 4% 4% 4% 3% 3% 4% 3%
Renfrewshire / Inverclyde 6% 7% 4% 5% 4% 5% 6% 5% 6% 7% 7% 6%
Scottish Borders 2% 2% 2% 3% 2% 3% 3% 3% 2% 2% 2% 2%
South Lanarkshire 6% 5% 4% 5% 4% 3% 4% 4% 5% 5% 4% 3%
West Dunbartonshire 1% 2% 1% 1% 1% 2% 2% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1%
West Lothian 2% 2% 1% 2% 2% 2% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1%
2 bedroom properties
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Aberdeen and Shire 5% 8% 9% 9% 9% 8% 10% 11% 11% 12% 12% 12%
Argyll and Bute 1% 1% 2% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1%
Ayrshires 7% 7% 5% 5% 5% 6% 6% 6% 6% 6% 5% 5%
Dumfries and Galloway 2% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 2% 2% 2% 2%
Dundee and Angus 6% 8% 8% 7% 8% 7% 8% 6% 6% 6% 6% 6%
East Dunbartonshire 2% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1%
Fife 6% 5% 6% 7% 6% 7% 5% 5% 6% 6% 6% 6%
Forth Valley 6% 5% 5% 5% 5% 6% 6% 4% 4% 4% 5% 4%
Greater Glasgow 14% 13% 14% 15% 16% 15% 17% 19% 19% 19% 18% 19%
Highland and Islands 6% 7% 7% 5% 7% 6% 6% 6% 5% 5% 5% 5%
Lothian 18% 14% 15% 16% 14% 15% 14% 16% 15% 15% 19% 19%
North Lanarkshire 4% 5% 4% 4% 4% 4% 4% 4% 4% 4% 4% 3%
Perth and Kinross 4% 4% 5% 4% 4% 4% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3%
Renfrewshire / Inverclyde 6% 6% 5% 4% 5% 4% 5% 4% 5% 5% 4% 5%
Scottish Borders 2% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 2% 2% 2% 2% 2% 2%
South Lanarkshire 6% 6% 5% 5% 4% 4% 4% 4% 4% 4% 4% 4%
West Dunbartonshire 2% 1% 1% 2% 1% 2% 2% 2% 2% 2% 1% 1%
West Lothian 4% 3% 2% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 2% 2%
3 bedroom properties
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Aberdeen and Shire 5% 7% 9% 9% 8% 8% 8% 9% 9% 10% 11% 10%
Argyll and Bute 1% 2% 2% 2% 2% 2% 2% 2% 2% 2% 1% 2%
Ayrshires 8% 8% 6% 7% 7% 7% 7% 6% 6% 8% 9% 8%
Dumfries and Galloway 3% 4% 5% 5% 6% 5% 4% 4% 3% 3% 3% 3%
Dundee and Angus 4% 4% 5% 5% 6% 6% 7% 6% 6% 6% 5% 5%
East Dunbartonshire 2% 2% 1% 2% 2% 2% 2% 2% 2% 2% 1% 1%
Fife 6% 5% 4% 8% 8% 9% 9% 7% 8% 7% 6% 6%
Forth Valley 6% 5% 4% 4% 4% 5% 6% 5% 5% 4% 4% 4%
Greater Glasgow 10% 9% 9% 10% 10% 11% 12% 15% 15% 14% 12% 14%
Highland and Islands 8% 9% 9% 7% 9% 7% 7% 7% 6% 6% 6% 6%
Lothian 19% 14% 15% 14% 12% 14% 12% 13% 16% 16% 16% 17%
North Lanarkshire 4% 4% 4% 4% 4% 5% 4% 5% 5% 5% 6% 5%
Perth and Kinross 3% 4% 4% 3% 4% 3% 3% 2% 2% 2% 3% 3%
Renfrewshire / Inverclyde 5% 5% 4% 4% 6% 4% 5% 4% 4% 5% 4% 5%
Scottish Borders 4% 4% 5% 5% 4% 4% 4% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3%
South Lanarkshire 6% 7% 6% 5% 4% 4% 4% 5% 5% 5% 5% 5%
West Dunbartonshire 1% 2% 1% 2% 2% 2% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1%
West Lothian 4% 4% 3% 4% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 2% 3% 3%
4 bedroom properties
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Aberdeen and Shire 6% 8% 10% 17% 16% 16% 17% 14% 16% 15% 14% 12%
Argyll and Bute 2% 2% 2% 3% 2% 2% 3% 1% 2% 1% 1% 1%
Ayrshires 6% 6% 5% 7% 6% 6% 6% 6% 6% 6% 6% 5%
Dumfries and Galloway 3% 4% 3% 4% 4% 3% 4% 3% 2% 3% 2% 3%
Dundee and Angus 3% 5% 5% 5% 6% 6% 5% 7% 6% 5% 6% 7%
East Dunbartonshire 2% 2% 2% 2% 2% 3% 2% 3% 2% 2% 2% 1%
Fife 5% 5% 8% 7% 9% 9% 9% 8% 7% 7% 5% 8%
Forth Valley 6% 6% 5% 4% 4% 5% 6% 5% 5% 4% 3% 3%
Greater Glasgow 11% 10% 10% 7% 7% 7% 8% 13% 12% 13% 11% 13%
Highland and Islands 6% 8% 8% 7% 7% 7% 7% 6% 6% 5% 4% 4%
Lothian 23% 18% 19% 14% 13% 13% 12% 11% 19% 19% 26% 27%
North Lanarkshire 5% 4% 4% 3% 3% 3% 3% 4% 4% 4% 3% 3%
Perth and Kinross 3% 3% 3% 4% 4% 3% 3% 2% 2% 2% 3% 3%
Renfrewshire / Inverclyde 3% 4% 3% 4% 4% 5% 4% 4% 3% 4% 3% 2%
Scottish Borders 4% 4% 4% 4% 4% 3% 3% 2% 2% 2% 2% 2%
South Lanarkshire 7% 5% 7% 5% 4% 3% 4% 6% 5% 5% 5% 3%
West Dunbartonshire 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 0% 0% 1% 1%
West Lothian 4% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 2% 3% 3%
1 bedroom shared properties
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Aberdeen and Shire 11% 12% 12% 7% 8% 6% 5% 4% 6% 10% 12% 12%
Argyll and Bute 1% 1% 2% 3% 4% 4% 2% 2% 1% 2% 1% 2%
Ayrshires 3% 4% 5% 6% 6% 6% 6% 6% 5% 5% 4% 6%
Dumfries and Galloway 4% 4% 3% 3% 4% 4% 4% 4% 5% 4% 5% 6%
Dundee and Angus 8% 8% 7% 5% 5% 4% 5% 8% 7% 7% 10% 10%
East Dunbartonshire 2% 2% 1% 2% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 2% 1% 1%
Fife 4% 4% 6% 8% 8% 10% 8% 7% 7% 6% 6% 6%
Forth Valley 3% 3% 3% 4% 6% 6% 5% 6% 4% 3% 2% 2%
Greater Glasgow 15% 18% 19% 19% 14% 12% 10% 15% 17% 16% 13% 16%
Highland and Islands 8% 8% 7% 6% 7% 9% 9% 7% 10% 8% 10% 10%
Lothian 20% 15% 16% 16% 17% 16% 20% 17% 18% 18% 17% 17%
North Lanarkshire 4% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 4% 4% 3% 3% 3% 1%
Perth and Kinross 4% 3% 4% 3% 3% 2% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 2%
Renfrewshire / Inverclyde 4% 4% 3% 4% 5% 5% 5% 4% 4% 4% 2% 2%
Scottish Borders 1% 1% 1% 2% 2% 2% 2% 2% 1% 1% 3% 2%
South Lanarkshire 4% 4% 3% 3% 4% 3% 3% 4% 3% 3% 3% 2%
West Dunbartonshire 1% 1% 1% 1% 3% 3% 2% 2% 2% 2% 2% 2%
West Lothian 3% 4% 2% 3% 3% 3% 4% 3% 3% 3% 2% 2%
Chart C3 - Sample Numbers in Broad Rental Market Areas, as proportions of the Scotland total

Given the variability in some years of the sampling numbers by area and property size as shown in Table C3 and Charts C3, separate weights by area and property size have been calculated based on Scottish Household Survey (SHS) data, see Table C4 and Charts C4 below. These SHS weights have been used to estimate Scotland level average rents in this publication (see Section 8 for more information on this).

Table C4 - SHS derived weights

1 bedroom properties
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Aberdeen and Shire 10.3 10.6 9.1 7.8 8.4 10.4 10.1 9.9 9.8 9.2 10.0 10.0
Argyll and Bute 2.1 1.2 1.1 1.4 1.4 1.7 1.9 1.9 1.5 1.0 1.0 1.0
Ayrshires 4.5 4.5 4.2 4.4 4.7 5.2 4.6 4.2 4.4 3.9 3.5 3.5
Dumfries and Galloway 2.3 2.5 2.6 2.0 1.5 1.2 1.5 1.7 1.6 1.6 1.7 1.7
Dundee and Angus 7.9 8.4 9.1 9.2 7.0 6.3 7.0 7.2 8.7 8.7 8.5 8.5
East Dunbartonshire 0.9 1.0 1.1 0.9 0.9 1.0 0.9 0.9 0.8 1.0 1.0 1.0
Fife 5.7 6.3 6.0 4.9 4.8 5.4 4.7 5.3 4.8 6.7 6.1 6.1
Forth Valley 2.4 2.8 3.7 3.7 3.0 3.2 3.4 3.9 3.7 3.4 3.1 3.1
Greater Glasgow 19.7 19.8 19.0 19.1 21.0 19.3 18.7 17.5 18.8 20.8 21.4 21.4
Highland and Islands 3.5 4.0 4.2 4.0 3.2 2.8 3.3 3.7 3.8 4.2 4.2 4.2
Lothian 26.0 24.9 24.6 25.1 26.1 25.4 25.7 25.2 23.6 22.9 22.8 22.8
North Lanarkshire 2.0 1.4 1.4 1.3 2.2 2.9 3.4 3.4 2.8 2.6 2.2 2.2
Perth and Kinross 3.0 2.8 2.6 2.3 2.0 3.1 2.8 2.8 2.4 2.8 2.2 2.2
Renfrewshire / Inverclyde 4.2 2.8 4.3 5.1 5.3 4.5 4.9 5.4 5.7 4.4 3.7 3.7
Scottish Borders 1.2 1.7 1.4 2.4 2.5 2.8 1.9 1.8 1.3 1.3 2.3 2.3
South Lanarkshire 2.0 2.3 2.8 3.3 3.6 3.0 2.5 2.3 2.6 3.2 3.7 3.7
West Dunbartonshire 1.1 1.4 1.4 1.6 1.0 1.0 1.2 1.7 2.2 1.7 1.4 1.4
West Lothian 1.4 1.6 1.4 1.5 1.4 0.9 1.7 1.4 1.3 0.6 1.4 1.4
2 bedroom properties
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Aberdeen and Shire 7.8 7.7 8.4 8.9 9.4 8.8 8.6 8.2 8.2 8.7 8.4 8.4
Argyll and Bute 2.4 1.9 1.3 0.8 1.1 1.4 1.5 1.4 1.4 1.4 1.3 1.3
Ayrshires 3.9 4.1 4.3 4.7 4.9 5.0 4.8 5.1 4.6 4.4 4.2 4.2
Dumfries and Galloway 2.8 2.3 2.3 2.8 2.8 3.0 2.3 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.8
Dundee and Angus 6.5 6.4 6.0 6.7 6.9 6.9 6.1 5.9 6.0 6.0 5.9 5.9
East Dunbartonshire 0.4 0.6 0.8 0.7 0.8 0.6 0.9 0.9 1.1 1.0 0.9 0.9
Fife 5.0 5.3 5.8 5.8 5.6 5.4 5.8 6.0 6.6 6.3 6.8 6.8
Forth Valley 5.2 4.2 3.9 4.1 4.6 4.7 4.9 5.3 6.1 6.0 5.3 5.3
Greater Glasgow 18.5 18.5 18.2 17.5 17.0 17.3 17.6 17.7 16.9 17.1 17.4 17.4
Highland and Islands 6.6 6.4 5.7 5.2 5.9 5.7 5.9 5.0 5.1 5.5 5.4 5.4
Lothian 23.9 23.3 23.7 22.7 21.8 21.8 20.2 19.4 18.7 19.5 19.9 19.9
North Lanarkshire 3.0 3.8 4.1 3.8 3.1 2.4 3.6 3.9 4.3 3.8 4.1 4.1
Perth and Kinross 3.6 3.8 2.9 2.6 2.4 3.0 3.1 3.1 3.0 3.1 2.8 2.8
Renfrewshire / Inverclyde 2.5 2.9 3.3 4.0 4.2 4.6 4.7 5.0 4.4 4.3 4.2 4.2
Scottish Borders 2.6 2.4 2.5 2.3 2.2 1.7 2.0 1.9 2.0 1.7 2.0 2.0
South Lanarkshire 2.8 3.2 3.5 4.0 3.8 4.0 3.8 4.1 4.4 4.6 5.0 5.0
West Dunbartonshire 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.3 1.2 0.9 0.9
West Lothian 1.6 2.1 2.5 2.8 2.7 2.8 3.2 3.4 3.5 3.1 2.9 2.9
3 bedroom properties
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Aberdeen and Shire 8.9 9.6 9.1 8.0 6.6 7.5 7.9 8.7 8.4 8.6 8.0 8.0
Argyll and Bute 2.1 1.7 1.7 1.8 2.1 2.3 2.0 2.1 2.0 2.1 2.4 2.4
Ayrshires 6.8 6.8 7.2 6.9 7.6 7.0 6.5 7.5 9.0 8.9 8.3 8.3
Dumfries and Galloway 4.3 3.9 4.5 3.9 4.1 4.0 4.2 4.3 3.4 3.2 3.4 3.4
Dundee and Angus 6.2 5.3 5.8 5.5 5.8 5.9 6.7 7.0 5.9 5.9 5.0 5.0
East Dunbartonshire 0.7 0.7 0.7 1.0 1.1 1.2 0.9 1.0 0.9 1.2 1.0 1.0
Fife 6.6 7.7 8.0 9.4 8.9 8.2 6.8 7.3 6.7 6.6 5.5 5.5
Forth Valley 3.7 4.1 4.1 4.0 3.7 3.9 4.3 5.5 5.9 6.6 6.0 6.0
Greater Glasgow 13.7 14.2 14.3 14.3 13.1 12.2 11.0 11.5 11.3 11.2 12.0 12.0
Highland and Islands 11.2 9.6 9.5 8.6 8.7 9.9 10.2 9.2 8.6 9.1 10.5 10.5
Lothian 15.7 17.2 15.8 16.0 16.2 16.5 18.1 15.5 14.1 12.3 13.1 13.1
North Lanarkshire 2.5 2.5 3.7 3.9 5.0 4.3 4.5 4.5 5.1 5.6 4.5 4.5
Perth and Kinross 3.0 3.4 3.8 4.1 3.8 3.5 2.7 2.8 3.4 3.5 3.4 3.4
Renfrewshire / Inverclyde 2.9 3.0 2.9 2.9 3.0 3.6 3.3 3.0 3.7 4.4 5.0 5.0
Scottish Borders 4.3 3.4 3.4 3.2 3.3 2.7 2.5 2.4 2.2 2.2 2.4 2.4
South Lanarkshire 3.6 3.0 2.3 2.3 2.4 2.4 2.8 2.8 3.8 3.7 4.6 4.6
West Dunbartonshire 0.1 0.5 0.5 1.0 1.3 1.4 1.1 1.0 1.1 1.0 1.3 1.3
West Lothian 3.6 3.3 2.7 3.2 3.5 3.7 4.3 3.9 4.6 3.8 3.8 3.8
4 bedroom properties
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Aberdeen and Shire 12.3 13.4 13.8 12.9 12.2 11.4 12.2 12.5 11.1 12.2 9.7 9.7
Argyll and Bute 2.3 1.9 2.8 3.2 3.8 3.5 2.8 3.0 2.4 2.0 2.9 2.9
Ayrshires 2.9 2.9 3.9 4.2 3.3 2.1 3.7 5.2 5.6 3.2 3.1 3.1
Dumfries and Galloway 6.6 4.6 4.3 5.4 6.3 6.9 5.7 3.8 3.5 2.9 4.0 4.0
Dundee and Angus 4.3 5.6 2.8 3.3 3.7 5.9 5.4 5.1 4.0 5.3 7.7 7.7
East Dunbartonshire 1.9 1.8 1.5 0.3 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.3 0.6 0.6 0.7 0.7
Fife 7.7 6.9 8.6 10.6 10.3 6.9 4.2 3.1 6.9 8.9 8.7 8.7
Forth Valley 7.1 6.7 6.7 5.9 4.4 3.9 2.8 2.6 4.1 4.3 3.0 3.0
Greater Glasgow 10.3 11.2 9.4 10.2 9.7 9.3 9.0 8.2 8.5 8.6 9.1 9.1
Highland and Islands 10.8 9.7 8.4 6.9 9.6 11.6 11.4 12.9 10.0 10.4 8.5 8.5
Lothian 20.2 20.2 23.7 24.0 22.4 21.4 19.7 19.4 20.0 23.0 23.2 23.2
North Lanarkshire 2.9 3.3 3.3 1.9 1.9 2.4 3.4 3.8 2.5 3.5 4.9 4.9
Perth and Kinross 3.4 2.8 1.7 0.7 1.6 2.7 4.6 5.3 5.8 5.0 4.1 4.1
Renfrewshire / Inverclyde 2.1 1.4 2.4 1.6 2.6 2.2 3.3 2.7 1.7 1.4 2.0 2.0
Scottish Borders 2.7 2.8 2.5 2.9 2.9 3.3 2.7 3.1 4.2 3.5 2.5 2.5
South Lanarkshire 1.2 1.6 1.3 1.4 1.9 2.9 4.5 4.9 5.1 3.1 3.6 3.6
West Dunbartonshire 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.4 0.4 0.5 0.3 0.7 1.1 0.8 1.0 1.0
West Lothian 1.4 3.2 2.9 4.2 2.1 2.5 3.4 3.5 2.9 1.3 1.4 1.4
1 bedroom shared properties
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Aberdeen and Shire 11.0 11.7 11.6 12.4 11.9 12.3 13.5 14.2 13.9 12.2 11.4 11.4
Argyll and Bute 1.3 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.7 1.4 1.3 1.2 1.3 1.1 1.6 1.6
Ayrshires 2.1 2.1 2.1 2.0 2.5 1.7 1.9 1.6 2.0 1.8 1.5 1.5
Dumfries and Galloway 1.2 1.0 0.9 0.9 1.0 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.5 1.4 1.0 1.0
Dundee and Angus 5.6 6.0 6.2 7.9 8.3 7.7 6.0 6.8 6.3 6.1 5.6 5.6
East Dunbartonshire 0.3 0.1 0.1 0.5 1.0 0.8 0.7 0.8 0.9 0.7 0.5 0.5
Fife 4.4 3.9 4.2 5.7 6.8 5.2 4.2 3.0 3.7 4.6 4.1 4.1
Forth Valley 5.3 4.7 5.5 3.4 3.4 4.9 5.6 5.9 4.7 4.9 5.7 5.7
Greater Glasgow 25.5 26.6 26.3 27.9 23.8 23.3 20.9 23.8 26.5 29.4 30.5 30.5
Highland and Islands 4.4 3.8 4.1 3.2 4.1 3.7 5.1 3.5 3.7 3.1 3.6 3.6
Lothian 28.9 29.9 28.5 25.3 24.4 27.1 28.6 25.8 24.1 24.0 25.7 25.7
North Lanarkshire 1.7 1.8 1.6 1.4 1.7 1.6 1.5 1.9 2.0 1.8 1.0 1.0
Perth and Kinross 2.0 1.2 1.3 0.7 1.6 1.6 3.1 2.9 2.7 1.5 1.7 1.7
Renfrewshire / Inverclyde 1.8 2.2 2.6 2.6 2.2 2.0 1.7 1.7 2.0 1.8 2.1 2.1
Scottish Borders 0.5 0.5 0.1 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.5 0.4 0.6 0.6
South Lanarkshire 1.3 1.2 1.3 1.2 1.4 1.9 1.7 2.3 2.4 3.6 2.7 2.7
West Dunbartonshire 0.2 0.1 0.1 0.5 0.7 0.5 0.6 0.8 0.8 0.6 0.3 0.3
West Lothian 2.4 2.1 2.2 2.5 3.3 3.1 2.1 1.9 1.0 1.0 0.5 0.5

The Scottish Household Survey (SHS) weights have been built up by using an approximate mapping of local authority areas to Broad Rental Market Areas.

The weights from the survey data have been constructed using 3 year rolling data periods to help with precision of results at Broad Rental Market Area and to smooth out annual variations seen in the survey results. Each 3 year data period being centred on the rental year to be estimated with a lag applied of 2 years, due to the time delay between 3 year survey results being available and the latest rental year in question.

For example in the previous publication, for the rental year 2020, a 3 year data period 2017 to 2019 was used to construct the stock based weights, which equates to the year 2020 lagged by two years (i.e. to be centred on 2018).

One aspect to note for this publication is that given that the Scottish Household Survey results for the year 2020 are not available.[16] the previous set of weights based on the 3 year data period 2017 to 2019 have been rolled forward as the basis for the rental year 2021.

For each property size category, the stock based weights have been calculated based on the proportion of private rented households in each category that are located in each of the Broad Rental Market Areas.

The exception is for 1 bedroom shared properties, where the weightings are instead based on the estimated proportions of owner occupier or private rented households in each areas that contain two or more adults who are not related or who are not in a married / civil partnership or a co-habiting partnership, with the aim to identify households where there may be an individual room being rented in some form.

To note one limitation of the weighting approach applied is that there may be some level of mis-match between the SHS weights (covering all PRS stock) and the sample of records collected from Rent Service Scotland (i.e. excluding those with housing benefit and regulated tenancies)

Chart C4 - SHS derived weights

Contact

Email: housingstatistics@gov.scot

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