Rental Income Guarantee Scheme

Overview

A Joint Market Engagement Document from the Scottish Government and the industry-led Private Rented Sector Working Group in respect of support for new purpose build-to-rent Private Rented Housing in Scotland.

Demand in Scotland for new housing stock is expected to grow significantly over the next decade. While the Scottish Government has set an ambitious target of 50,000 new affordable homes to be delivered over the next five years, it also recognises that there is a need for new housing across all tenures and price points.

New, high quality housing built expressly for rental (known as Build-to-Rent Private Rented Sector or BTR PRS housing) is a key element of the housing mix.

Work with industry to date has suggested that a government guarantee is needed to build investor confidence in order to deliver on the potential of this sector in Scotland. We wish to test this hypothesis as part of this market engagement exercise.

Why your views matter

Scottish Government would like to solicit views from the industry and other stakeholders on a detailed Rental Income Guarantee Scheme proposal as part of developing its overarching strategy for supporting the growth in the new build for rental market.

We are now seeking views on these proposals. We welcome all input - please give reasons for your answers, wherever possible. Feedback to this discussion document will be an invaluable contribution to the process of developing the rationale for a financial mechanism to support the sector.

This exercise does not cover the social rented or the help-to-buy / shared equity sectors. While SG is particularly keen to elicit feedback from prospective participants in future PRS developments in Scotland, it recognises and values input from all relevant stakeholders. In order for the data from this exercise to be properly assessed, respondents are requested to identify the sector or interest group to which they belong.

This market engagement exercise will remain open until 22nd April 2016. The SG may decide to extend the deadline at its discretion.

For any queries in relation to this document, please contact Lynsey Thomson (Scottish Government Financial Innovation Unit) via email at lynsey.thomson@gov.scot or by telephone on 0300 020 1226.