A surge in demand for property to rent in Scotland has sent available stock levels down almost two thirds in just 3 months, according to Citylets, the Scottish portal for rental property, with over 400 agent offices online and advertising over 50,000 properties per year, which has published its Q3 review of the market.

The report calls the present market conditions a ‘Demandemic’.

What began as a resurgence of tenant demand late in Q2 2021 quickly evolved into what many letting agents in Scotland have described as simply the strongest and most sustained period of lettings activity on record.

Stock levels in Scotland plummeted a full 65% over the quarter and many prospective tenants have reported unusual difficulty finding a home to rent.

Commentating on the latest report, Gillian Semmler, Communications Manager at Citylets said:

“The ramifications of the health pandemic, amongst many other things, have now seen nothing short of a demandemic in the Scottish rental sector.

“Stock levels have declined dramatically in a very short space of time [and] struggle to keep up with unrelenting demand from tenants in all walks of life.

“Getting a residential property to rent in many areas of Scotland has pivoted abruptly from abundant choice to slim pickings.”

Q3 2021 will likely be remembered as a unique period where demand for property to rent was simultaneously high in all regions covered by the Citylets report.

Major cities, satellite towns and rural locations all posted positive annual price growth of up to more than 10%.

Larger properties, in general, continued to fare best with 3 and 4 beds posting annual growth of 8.4% and 5.8% respectively driving the Scottish average up 4.7% Year on Year (YOY) to a new all time high of £906 per month.

Demand was rekindled across all property types and sizes with additional late demand from students returning to their university cities for in-person learning.

The pace of the market accelerated dramatically, down 14 days on average for Scotland-wide average Time to Let (TTL) of just 27 days. 3 and 4 bed properties in Glasgow and Aberdeen let a full 3 weeks faster than last year.

Adrian Sangster of Aberdein Considine said:

“When commenting on the market I feel like a broken record. High demand, low stock.

“Post-lockdown we experienced a 100% increase of enquiries from people looking for properties across Scotland, especially family-sized homes.

“With insufficient properties to meet demand it leaves many people feeling upset and frustrated because they can’t find a home.

“The PRS in Scotland is the most heavily regulated in the UK therefore is a matter of deep concern to hear increased anti-landlord rhetoric from the coalition.

“If this continues, I fear many landlords will leave the sector reducing further the choice of properties available.”