Student accommodation will be included in Scottish Government plans to temporarily freeze rents across the country, it has been confirmed. Nicola Sturgeon announced earlier this month that emergency legislation would be tabled at Holyrood which would ban landlords raising rents in both public and private lets until at least March 31 next year - but there is already speculation it could be extended further.
But it was unclear if the rent freeze would also apply to students living in purpose-built accommodation. Such blocks have become common sights in Scottish cities as developers cash in on increasing demand for university places.
Scottish Labour MSP Mercedes Villalba wrote to Patrick Harvie, minister for tenants' rights, to demand the freeze also included student lets. She said: "Students in purpose-built accommodation are no less affected by exploitative rent hikes. How will you ensure the rent freeze applies to these households too?"
A spokesman for the Scottish Government told the Record: "These are exceptional measures developed to reflect a rapidly worsening cost of living crisis. If approved by the Scottish Parliament they will help ensure tenants – including students in the private rented sector – can remain in their homes and that they won’t see their rents rise over the autumn and winter.
"We intend to give the same levels of protection to students in halls or other types of purpose-built accommodation. Tenancies in halls of residence and purpose built student accommodation are structured differently from other types of tenancies, often including energy costs, so we are working at pace to determine how best to achieve parity of protection."
A rent freeze forms part of the Scottish Government's broader plans to help people through a time when inflation has soared to a 40-year high and the cost of energy has rocketed to unprecedented levels. But some have said the scheme does not go far enough as it does not help those already struggling to find rented accomodation.
Private rents in Glasgow have shot up to £1,000 a month on average in the last year while they now stand at £1,200 in Edinburgh. Around 700,000 Scots rent privately, with a further one million living in homes owned by councils or housing associations.
Experts have warned there are not enough flats to meet demand with many landlords having sold up and tenants are staying in a property for longer.
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