Renting in Edinburgh: costs, best areas, and a rent freeze in the Scottish capital
The introduction of a rent freeze in Scotland earlier this month was part of a raft of measures from Nicola Sturgeon’s government aimed at helping with the rising cost of living.
Exact details remain sketchy but the freeze, aimed at privately and publicly rented homes, is planned to last until at least March 2023 with additional emergency legislation being introduced to ban evictions during the winter.
Edinburgh’s position as a tourist hotspot and the UK’s second most visited city after London, attracting close to five million visitors in pre-Covid 2019, and its self-proclaimed reputation as the world’s leading festival city, means that short-term rentals can be especially lucrative.
A third of all Scotland’s short-term lets are in Edinburgh and the numbers of lets on Airbnb have doubled since 2016, now reaching 12,000.
Figures from Rightmove highlight the record low levels of stock: at the end of August this year, there were only 489 properties for rent in Edinburgh. Estate and letting agency Umega reported one of their properties received close to 1,000 tenant enquiries in one weekend.
In August this year, the Scottish government approved proposals to introduce controls on short-term lets in the city, limiting their numbers and making landlords apply for permission to rent.
The scheme is due to start in October 2022 when new owners of short-term lets will be required to apply for a licence. Existing property owners have until April 2023 to apply.
'It helps that we are on the ‘wrong’ side of a good area'
Rose McKeogh, 29, an associate dentist in general practice, rents a one-bedroom flat in Edinburgh with her partner Oli, 34, a radiologist at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. Renting in the city is not easy Rose agrees.
“Initially I shared with a girlfriend and paid around £425 a month,” she says. “When I was first looking at rentals in 2018, there wasn’t a great deal of choice, especially for unfurnished places,” she says. “You had to be prepared to spend a lot of money to be in one of the nicer city areas and even then, many places were tiny or pretty awful.”
Since 2019, Rose and Oli have lived at the top of Leith Walk, very close to the ever-elegant New Town as well as less prestigious Pilrig and Bonnington.
“We pay £825 a month, incredibly cheap for Edinburgh and rent from a private landlord through an estate agent,” says Rose, 29.
“Most people I know pay around £1,200 to £1,400 for two bedrooms. It helps that we are on the ‘wrong’ side of a good area. Walk one or two streets from our flat and the postcode changes and prices shoot up.
"Oli viewed quite a few places before finding this one. It’s about 800 square feet with a well-sized kitchen-dining room, a living room as well as an internal room that can fit a double mattress, ideal for when friends stay over.”
When friends do come to stay, they marvel at the high ceilings and beautiful cornicing, a feature of much of Edinburgh’s generously sized Georgian and Victorian architecture.
Their landlord is quick to sort out problems, some damp in the bathroom for example, and let them redecorate parts of the flat during lockdown, even unexpectedly covering the cost of the paint when she was delighted with their handiwork.
“Our biggest frustration is probably that we are still renting,” admits Rose. “Ideally, we would buy our own place or move to a nicer area but we are in that cycle where our current flat isn’t terrible and we both find moving a real pain. We did try to take the first step onto the property ladder last year but a few properties fell through and then Oli’s exams came up and it all got put on the back burner.”
