Nurse Victoria Fear, 51, contacted the BBC’s Your Voice to highlight the situation in her area. She said that available rental properties in Dumfries and Galloway were extremely scarce.
Her landlord has told her the rent, in the home where she has lived for eight years, will rise from £950 a month to £1,300.
“All my money goes on rent, bills and food,” she said. “We’ve not had a holiday in years.”
Temporary rent controls were put in place in Scotland during the Covid pandemic, but those expired in April 2025. New long-term measures will allow ministers to designate parts of the country as rent control areas by 2027.
She said she understood her landlord’s thinking, but felt she was seriously disadvantaged as a single mum-of-three with a solitary income.
“I don’t have an issue with market-value rent, but it is not an affordable proposition,” she said.
With two of her children working towards exams, she said she would have to find a way to manage.