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Airbnb properties will return to mainstream use, pledges politicians

Politicians in a city with one of the UK’s most frenzied short lets markets are pledging to return Airbnb style units back to their mainstream rental and sales sectors.

In its manifesto for the May local elecitons, the Scottish National Party says new and existing short-term let operators in Edinburgh will be obliged to apply for official planning permission from the city council if they are to continue.

In recent years Edinburgh has been cited as seeing the densest concentration of Airbnbs in the UK, with up to 100,000 listings - a figure attracting criticism from politicians, charities, and long term rental trade bodies too.

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The SNP is claiming that if it retains control of the city after the May poll, it will set out that conversion of housing into other uses - such as short lets - will be treated the same way as demolition. Permission will be granted only where there is an exceptional case for it.

Holiday lets that do not involve a whole property conversion will be excluded and will continue as at present, including the letting out of spare rooms or temporary lets of a main residence, particularly during the city’s internationally renowned summer festival period.

Adam McVey, leader of the SNP on Edinburgh City Council, says: “Housing is in high demand in Edinburgh because so many people want to live and work in our amazing city. We simply can’t go on with thousands of properties that were built as homes being run as hotels.

"We need to bring these residential homes back to being homes for residents so people in the city have affordable places to live.

“In city centre areas especially, the concentration of holiday lets converted from flats has created a local shortage of housing and sent rents upward. Many Edinburgh residents have also experienced constant noise nuisances, serious disturbances and disruption by having to share a stair with properties never designed to be operated as visitor accommodation.”

“Websites that started as a perfectly reasonable way of making money by renting out a spare room are more and more being used by big investors to buy up whole residential homes and market them to tourists, all year round.”

He continues: “Meanwhile the hotel and B&B sector has suffered as they have been undercut by rivals who have operated without permission and without the same requirement for safety checks.

“Conservative councillors are opposing plans to act. Voters should know that the best way to get action on this is to vote in SNP councillors and prevent the Tories from ripping up our hard-won progress.

“We want a city centre people can live in and this is a workable plan that will turn thousands of properties back into homes once again.”

Want to comment on this story? If so...if any post is considered to victimise, harass, degrade or intimidate an individual or group of individuals on any basis, then the post may be deleted and the individual immediately banned from posting in future.

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    Oh goodness!

    I find myself agreeing with the SNP!

    Call an ambulance someone. It might just come for me before Polling Day and stop me from voting!

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    With all the regulation and interference in the PRS, it’s hardly surprising that properties have gone over to holiday lets. However, they’re going to be more regulated going forward.

    I can’t see how this planning restrictions will work. Historically, planning laws were not retrospective and existing property rights were protected. But then, we had the absolute right to end a short assured tenancy removed recently…

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    Although i do not live in Scotland i have to also agree with the SNP, they have a duty to the wider community and if it continues as it appears it is then it will become a very transient city which in the end will not be good for anyone..... apart from those making a killing of course.

    If this works then i wonder how long before Cornwall/Devon look at it with envious eyes !!! Watch out down south.

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    Politicians blaming landlords for their own failings in providing suitable housing. They could build enough Nightingale hospitals in record time for a questionable pandemic and enough tanks and planes to beat the Germans in the Second World War. They could build enough houses around Edinburgh if they chose to there is no shortage of land. You have to ask the question why they are not doing so? Instead they want to cut their own throats by restricting the supply of holiday accommodation which is one of the reasons that Edinburgh is thriving. Stop the tourists you wouldn't have a shortage of accommodation in Edinburgh but a ghost town.
    Who elected these idiots?
    Jim Haliburton
    The HMO Daddy

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    Jim

    Airbnb in Edinburgh is blighting the lives of many neighbourhoods, harming proper hospitality businesses and further reducing the availability of long term rental accommodation.

    Of course it's not the fault of the landlords in the main who have decided not to put up with the SNP legislation on PRS properties but it does need to be better regulated, at least in Edinburgh if not elsewhere.

     
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    Robert
    It's a ridiculous statement. Lots of these foreign companies dodge tax, making them predators for Britain's businesses. Tourism brings in lots of money. Further we have open borders and can't possibly feed clothe and house them. All our politicians seem to have become communists. And communists share what they haven't got !

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    Edwin

    Not sure which statement you're saying is ridiculous?

    I was focusing purely on the effect short lets are having in many residential areas in Edinburgh.

    I blame the SNP for this as they have made the PRS so unattractive for landlords but instead of fixing the issue they propose more force rather than reform.

     
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