This report was funded by Argyll and Bute Council and Citizens Advice Scotland to better understand the composition of rural landlords in Argyll and Bute, to identify the extent to which they differ in key measures from nonrural landlords, to explore the specific investment challenges they face, and to quantify their future investment intentions.

The report builds upon recent works exploring landlordism in Scotland (Watson, 2023; Watson & Bailey, 2021) and a companion report focused upon the tenant side (Argyll and Bute Citizens Advice Bureau, 2022). As the first major research project focused upon rural landlords in Scotland, the report covers a lot of ground, and exceeds its initial scope by providing additional landlords insights into the Short Term Lets (STL) sector, second home ownership, as well as unique insights into the operation of the private landlord registration team, amongst others. Whilst the report should ideally be read in full, Section 15 (The Biggest Challenges Faced by Rural Landlords), Section 16 (Landlord Intentions) and Section 19 (Conclusions and recommendations) will be of particular interest to those short on time, but with a desire to understand rural landlordism in Argyll and Bute.