Edinburgh council boss Cammy Day (main pic, right) has admitted that introducing licensing and new planning application rules will result in fewer holiday properties.
Speaking to Australian news channel SBS, Day explained that the rapid growth in holiday lets, including 8,000 Airbnb listings in the city, had created huge problems.
“Over the decades we’ve seen the shift in more and more short term lets – we feel the balance has got a bit out of kilter,” he says.
“We’re saying the city centre particularly has become saturated, and we want to rebalance that so we can have a thriving community here that includes tourism.”
Landlords in Edinburgh wanting to convert a property to a short-term let must now apply for planning permission – incurring fees and legal costs – and there is no guarantee that it will be approved.
Throughout Scotland, new lets have needed to get a licence since last year while existing lets will need to apply by 1st October, after the original deadline was postponed by six months.
Family flats
Day told the news channel how he would rather see people living in the large family flats along the Royal Mile than the proliferation of holiday homes.
“We know there are development companies and individuals buying up these properties to put them into short term lets as the income here is a conservative £2,000 a week.”
Amanda Cupples (pictured), general manager for Northern Europe at Airbnb, told SBS that the company wasn’t averse to legislation, but that the licensing plan in Scotland was “disproportionate and burdensome”, particularly to smaller landlords.
“We acknowledge that in some local areas it might be necessary to limit the extent of short-term letting….but communities will be damaged – there’s not another source of income they can turn to,” she said.
