Short term lets in Edinburgh will soon require planning permission in order to operate in a bid to crack down on the number of Airbnbs in the city.
Councillors unanimously voted to make the capital Scotland's first short-term let control zone at a meeting of the council's Planning Committee on Wednesday (February 23).
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Under the city-wide scheme, any property that is not principally a home being leased through Airbnb or other means of short-term letting will need the local authority to grant a change of use, applying to future operators and current hosts who don't already have planning permission.
The City of Edinburgh Council says this will help to manage "high concentrations of secondary letting" and prevent STLs being set up "where it is not appropriate".
The draft proposals will now go to Scottish Government ministers for final approval before being publicised for 28 days prior to taking effect.
The capital has become a hotbed of short term lets over the past decade – and despite numbers falling since 2019 it's still home to around a third of the market in Scotland.
The rise of sites such as Airbnb – which saw the number of properties listed in Edinburgh fall from 8,000 to just over 4,000 during the pandemic – has fuelled concerns about the impact of STLs on the city's housing market.
In January the Scottish Government told councils to set up STL licensing schemes by October, with whole properties being let out on a short term basis required to apply for a license by April 2023.
A report to Edinburgh City Council noted there has been "long standing concern from the council and residents of the city about the impact of STLs".
Reporting the results of a statutory consultation on making Edinburgh a Short-term Let Area of Control, it added that 88 per cent of the 5,600 people who responded supported the introduction of the scheme.
However, the report noted there were "different degrees of support from individuals, community groups and other organisations".
"All community groups were in favour of the designation and for the entire area to be included. There was a high level of support from individuals (89 per cent) both for the principle and for the entire area to be included (84 per cent).
"This contrasts with just over half of other organisations not in support of designation and 65 per cent opposed to the whole area designation.
"A small proportion of respondents (1.5 per cent) were unsure about the designation as they were uncertain that it would address issues; that there may be other means of control; unsure of what the effects might be on property rights; impacts on tourism and that impacts of the Covid pandemic were unknown.
"3 per cent were unsure about the inclusion of the entire area for a variety of reasons including the administration of the scheme; need for more detail; and appropriateness including more rural areas."
Edinburgh City Council's Planning Convenor Neil Gardiner said: "I think there's broad consensus on this one and it's been quite a process to get where we are and it's another step in the right direction. This will then go back to parliament for ratification hopefully and then we can move forward and move forward rapidly.
"The short term let has had quite an effect on the city right across all council wards right out to Queensferry and the Port of Leith villages although it is concentrated in the city centre and impacts residential amenity in various guises."
