Locals in Leith have told of their fears their community is being lost to a surge in holiday lets despite new powers to crack down on them.
Leigh Graven, from Leith, says housing should be for people not profits. She added that the recent flood of short-term lets (STLs) is driving up rent prices for residents.
Leigh, a tenancy union member and volunteer for tenancy union Living Rent, believes STLs are causing a shortage of housing in the capital. Research by the group suggests rent prices up have surged 15 percent on average to £1,283 per flat.
Digital marketer Leigh has also demanded that Edinburgh City Council and the Scottish government come together to address the existing numbers of STLs. In early August 2022, both authorities announced plans to tackle STLs in Edinburgh by declaring the country’s first STL control area.
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New proposals will mean that anyone looking to establish a STL will have to request planning permission from the local authority. Those with STLs will also have a six-month window in order to apply to register their property for use in the city.
This is understood to help limit the impact of these properties on communities where they are deemed to not be appropriate. The hope is that areas will be protected from entire blocks, homes and streets being taken up by landlords looking to cash in on STLs.
Around one third of all the STLs in Scotland are found in Edinburgh with over 2,000 claimed to be in Leith. And the 30-year-old Leither says that she has little confidence in both bodies when it comes to properly regulating and says that loopholes exist within the plans.
She said: “STLs are ruining the community. The number of STLs has skyrocketed in recent years. With such a high number of STLs, our communities are being torn apart and tenants and residents no longer know who lives next door to them.
“With landlords buying up housing to turn into STLs, this is also having a huge impact on rents across the city. Residents are being pushed out by a lack of flats and hiked up prices for the flats that remain. Enough is enough!
“The current proposals for STLs do not address the fundamental issue that we already have too many. Though the city wants to cap the amount of STLs available, this ignores the fact that Edinburgh has been in crisis with STLs for years.
“In order to bring about any real change for the people who actually live in the city we need to bring the number down. The proposals also are not strict enough with landlords and licensing, giving them a six-week window to apply for a licence.
“Every landlord who is renting out a house that isn't their home, whether it is as a holiday let or in the private rented sector needs to apply for a licence. To properly tackle the STLs we need to bring down the number available.
“We also need to ensure that the ones that do exist are properly licensed and that there are fines and consequences for landlords who fail to comply with the standards. A key issue is also that we need to ensure that any STL regulation also applies to purpose built student accommodation. Homes should be for people, not for profit!”
We also spoke to three local representatives, Susan Rae, the Leith Walk councillor for the Scottish Greens and the party spokesperson on housing in Edinburgh, as well as Douglas Tharby who is the chairman of Leith Harbour and Newhaven community council, and Dom Giles who is also a member of the community council.
They raised a variety of issues and said that there are over 2,000 STL properties in Leith, with some areas like Albert Street inundated with STLs.
Councillor Rae, who stays in a sixty flat high rise block just off of Leith Walk, says that ten per cent of properties in her stairwell are STLs, she said: “We have thousands of people desperate for homes and the lack of housing caused by a shortage created by STLs means that we cannot house our own people.
“People will struggle to get through the winter in privately rented flats as rents have been driven so high by the scarcity.
“In this area the issue we have had is that they have hollowed out the market particularly in areas like Leith Walk. People have invested in small flats to make profits from Air.
“One of the things we keep hearing about is the impact on domestic refuse. Bins are full as people in STL flats don't care about what they do with their rubbish. Parking is also a huge issue when you have large groups arriving to properties that can have as many as 16 rooms.
“Leith Walk is a very desirable place for people to live. But now people cannot afford to live here.
“Especially the artist community. Developers use our thriving arts to sell and market the area but I know of three artists who have been forced out of the area due to the rising cost of rent and lack of affordable housing.
“I am hoping the legislation would help us but it has to be more rigid. We need to be carrying out enforcement and hopefully the new licensing will help with that.”
Douglas joined the Edinburgh City Councillor by sharing his own concerns, he said: “There are over 2k STLs listed properties in Leith and this impacts on the available housing stock. But residents have come forward with issues relating to security with strangers walking around tenement blocks at all hours.
“I have a few STLs next to me where I stay in the former Leith Hospital, one is well managed and another is not. One owner gives people access to the car park and tells them they can park anywhere which causes disruption to residents as spaces are allocated.
“I’m also regularly told that there are whole blocks in the community where almost every property is an STL. There are key safes everywhere and blocks are being used as hotels.
“The old model was for people to rent out a room in their home but it has changed completely. There has to be stricter regulations.”
Dom added that he felt the new legislation and policies were all well but that they were meaningless unless the council and government enforced them. He added that legislation and planning simply has to keep up with the market to ensure problems like this do not arise again.
We also spoke with a young couple, who did not wish to be named, who said that they were forced to move out of their recent flat for it to be turned into a STL. They said that they managed secure the property during lockdown but are now having to move back in with one of their parents in order to be able to save up for a house deposit.
They said: “I do not necessarily blame the hosts for renting out the flats on sites like AirBnB as they can make a lot more money than if they rent it out normally. There has to be enforcement from the local authority and government in order to make it more difficult for them to be able to do it.
“We move out of our flat next Monday and from Thursday it is being advertised for around £120 a night on AirBnB. The amount of flats being used for STLS means that a scarcity is caused in the market which drives up rents.
“Young people like ourselves just cannot afford to pay those prices whilst also trying to save up for a mortgage so are left with the decision of moving back in with parents.”
James Hughes, who grew up in Leith and was born down the road from Leith Walk said: “Everything that is new that prices out the average worker will change the mentality of a community. Leith Walk used to be a working class street and now it is a middle class street.
“I like hearing a lot of different languages. If we keep getting STLs in then ethnic minorities will be pushed out. Those starting a new life will in our country won’t be able to live in Leith.
“A single mum and working people should get houses before rich people can snap them up to rent them out. There should be local affordable housing for local people.”
Charlie and Agatha, who are both in their twenties and work and live in the Leith Walk community said that they feel finding a property is impossible and that working class people are being priced out of the community. Agatha said: “The community is changing. There is a lot of gentrification happening and working class people are being pushed out of the community.
“The wider issue is how the city’s homes are owned by a landlord class and not the community. It is more profitable for them to rent out STLs than to have affordable housing.
Charlie added: “I was homeless until I moved to Leith but my only option was getting a flat with two friends and the conditions are horrendous. It was disgusting when we moved in.
“We are paying £416 each and my room is a box room that has been created from a section of the living room.
“I work six days a week and I still can’t afford to live by myself. When I worked at Scotmid there was a landlord who owned STLSs that he would rent out during the festival and I feel it is wrong for one person to own multiple properties in one block to use like that.
“The rent is going up by hundreds of pounds each year. It is near impossible to get housing in communities like Leith now.”
Campaigners for Living Rent, who help tenants across Scotland fight for better treatment and rights for their members, say that loopholes exist in the current plans to tackle STLs.
They argue that the current proposal isn't clear on how it will bring down numbers and therefore there is no guarantee that current numbers will be reduced. Living Rent adds that the proposals do not cover purpose built student accommodation which is let as STLs, most notably in the summer.
They say it also gives those setting up holiday lets a six-week grace period before they need a licence whereas they feel if it's not your then home you need a licence from day one.
Meg Bishop, Living Rent secretary said: "Holiday lets are a massive problem for our city, and have exacerbated Edinburgh’s housing crisis. Every one of these holiday lets is one less home for permanent residents in the city, pushing up rent prices and hollowing out communities.
"Increasingly we are hearing stories of landlords hiking up rents to force tenants out in order to turn their homes into holiday lets.
"We welcome the designation of Edinburgh as a ‘short term lets control area’. However, we need to ensure that all these new schemes deliver the changes our city so desperately needs and bring the number of short-term lets in our city down!"
Council leader, councillor Cammy Day, sympathises with the points raised by both Leigh and her tenancy union. He says that he feels ‘disappointed’ that the current Scottish government proposals to tackle STLs do not go far enough.
Councillor Day would like to see greater powers that allow for the council to be able to control and limit the amount of the controversial properties in the capital.
He said: “We welcome the new legislation from the Scottish Government that we called for but I’m disappointed it didn’t go further capping the number of short term lets we have in the city. For years now they have been causing issues pushing up house prices and rents and causing issues with anti-social behaviour.
“We’re consulting on our implementation of the licensing scheme in Edinburgh at the moment and how this will work best for the city and we’ll make a final decision on the details of our policy at the end of September.”
The Scottish government says that their proposals do tackle some of the issues raised by Living Rent, their members and the council. They say that anyone with a STL property will have to apply for licences over a six month period in order to keep operating.
They also say that student purpose built accommodation is exempted from the proposals but houses and flats which are normally let to students are not to be excluded. The government also refuted claims of a six-week grace period.
A Scottish government spokesperson added: “In a control area, it is a mandatory condition of licence that planning permission has been obtained or an application is in progress for secondary letting of dwelling houses. Licences will not be granted where planning permission has been refused.
“The specific details of the Edinburgh control area plans are a matter for the council. The type of student accommodation which is excluded is purpose-built or specifically converted predominantly for the purpose of being provided to students.
“Houses and flats which are normally let to students are not excluded. It is untrue to say there is a six-week grace period.
“There is a six-month transitional window during which existing hosts must make an application for a licence in order to continue operating. Licence schemes open by October 1 2022 and existing hosts have until 1 April 2023 to apply for a licence.”
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