Capital-ism: Edinburgh landlords fill their boots while waiting lists grow longer
More than 30 landlords are operating lucrative short term letting businesses in Scotland’s capital, a new report reveals, adding to the pressure on Edinburgh’s housing stock.
The report by a University of Sheffield academic, in partnership with Green MSP Andy Wightman, shows how, as of September 2017, one host on a leading short term letting site had 80 listings in Edinburgh, 28 hosts had ten or more listings and seven hosts had more than 20. All of these listings are for an entire home or apartment and are spread across neighbourhoods throughout the city.
Green housing spokesperson Andy Wightman MSP, whose Homes First campaign aims to control the rapid and unregulated growth of short-term lets, says councils need to be given new powers to better monitor and control this form of letting, particularly in neighbourhoods where there is an acute housing shortage.
Lothian MSP Andy Wightman said: “We already know about the scale of short term letting throughout the city as well as the misery it has brought many residents who now find themselves living next door to a de facto hotel. What’s alarming about the findings of this new piece of research is that the housing market in Edinburgh is rapidly shifting to being led by the demands of investors rather than residents who wish to rent or buy properties.
“While it may be lucrative in the short term, the long term impacts mean that potential homes are being informally turned into businesses and being removed from the housing stock. This disruption to the housing market must end and this report is further proof that we need to give councils new powers to plan and regulate the use of residential property for short term lets.”
[1] https://greens.scot/files/
[2] https://greens.scot/
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