Katy-Anne’s rent jumped 80% in 18 months: is Glasgow’s rent out of control?

“I have had two separate occasions where I have been pushed out of my chosen flat in Glasgow due to landlords raising prices”, an agitated-sounding Katy-Anne Faulds tells me over the phone. In late 2020, Faulds and her partner’s one-bed Tradeston flat cost £720 a month. Just a year and a half later, their rent had risen to £1300 a month, so they left. Over this period, there was a long list of repairs that hadn’t been carried out — their flat suffered from insect infestations, mould and dampness. Despite these issues, the flat’s rent had rocketed.

This higher price was “simply unattainable”, Faulds says. She was working full-time but still found the rent impossible to keep up with while living comfortably. Instead, Faulds moved to Lenzie and lived there for two years, before once again being priced out of the area. The rent was originally £750, and in the same month that council tax increased by 10%, the landlord raised the rent by £100 a month, so she and her partner decided to move out. They now live in Shettleston, in a £760-a-month, two-bedroom flat that they share with one friend — Faulds says this is more manageable. 

Faulds’ story might sound extreme, but across Glasgow, renters are describing a market where affording to stay put is becoming increasingly difficult. 

Turn to Reddit and you’ll find Glasgow users struggling to find a rental in the first place or to afford the flat they’re in. As one person posted on a r/glasgowrent thread, “My dreams of living on my own are slowly dying because why is it £900-1000 on average to rent a 1 bed flat in city centre that’s so greedy”. Another post  — talking about a property in Partick — said “I finally found a place that I like well enough to rent, 1b1b [one bedroom, one bathroom] just good enough for my partner and I. It put tears in my eyes a bit that it's fricking 1,100 pcm…  Jesus lord does it really cost that much to rent in the city these days”.

According to CityLets data, your average two-bed (that’s the most common type of rental property on the market) would have cost £760 per month at the start of 2020. At the end of last year, the same home would’ve set you back £1,106 per month — a 46% increase. In Faulds’ previous Tradeston postcode, G5, rents increased by 43% over the same period, while hers rose 80% in just 18 months. Perhaps the impact of the Barclays campus opening in 2021 is what pushed her rent so high so quickly compared to flats further away from Barclays Island. 

But where are the rent increases highest? And are they where you’d expect – the usual suspects of gentrification – or are there some wild cards in the mix? Together with an expert with over a quarter of a century’s experience in the property market, we’ve pulled together stats and made maps to show you where Glasgow’s rent increases are hurting most. (As well as answering one crucial question: where is gentrifying quicker, Govan or Govanhill?)

Hi, we're Beth, Calum and Robbie, and we run The Bell. Big data stories and visualisations like the cool maps contained in the article (with whizz-banging interactive features) take a lot of time to get right. Compiling and analysing the data, making the choropleth maps, then embedding the HTML code properly into our newsletter and website. This is why we have to paywall articles - to pay our bills!

But do not fear, as a monthly subscription to The Bell costs just 0.69% of the rent for a two-bed flat in the city centre 😉 For more brilliant data comparisons, and to support local journalism in Glasgow, join The Bell.

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