‘It actually feels like my place’: Scotland’s rent cap helps tenants but loopholes remain

Tenant Mark Perrie: ‘I felt like an asset being traded about to get more cash out of me.’ Photograph: Sofia Conti/The Guardian

For 27-year-old Olly Brown, the impact of Scotland’s rent cap on his bank balance is indivisible from the effect on his peace of mind. “It’s the longest I’ve lived in the same place for the whole of my adult life,” says the market researcher, who rents a one-bedroom flat near Haymarket in Edinburgh.

“I never thought that a rental property could feel like a home,” he says, “but now I have plants and I’ve been able to decorate a bit. It actually feels like my place.”