Airbnbs ‘will need planning permission’

Crackdown on short-term rentals

SCOTS homeowners who want to rent out their properties as short-term holiday lets via websites such as airbnb will have to apply for planning permission under a tough new crackdown.

Concerns have been raised about the ‘uncontrolled and rapid rise’ of such rentals – with critics condemning the ‘hollowing out’ of communities and use of flats by anti-social stag and hen parties.

yesterday, MSPs passed an amendment to the Scottish Government’s Planning Bill which will mean all those letting out their homes on a short-term lease will have to secure full planning permission to do so.

the move was led by Green MSP andy Wightman, who has been campaigning for stricter conditions for companies and homeowners who ‘airbnb’ their properties.

It follows the soaring use of the service in edinburgh, which has more than 40 per cent of the 21,900 Scots properties listed on airbnb.

Mr Wightman said it had become too easy for landlords to let out their properties for only a few days, encouraging noisy holidaymakers into residential areas.

last year he claimed some residents had been disturbed by ‘audible sex parties’.

yesterday, in a bid to reduce the use of such lets, he tabled an amendment to the Planning (Scotland) Bill in the local government committee. the move means it will become harder for landlords to provide ‘short-term holiday lets’ by classing the change of a dwelling house to a short-term holiday let as a ‘material change of use’.

a landlord would have to obtain full planning permission

‘Locals are concerned’

– and face a greater bureaucratic and financial burden.

Mr Wightman said: ‘the uncontrolled and rapid rise in short-term lets in our cities and our rural communities is depriving families and indi- viduals of badly needed longterm homes.’

average annual earnings for hosts in edinburgh are around £4,000. In the year to March 2017, 802,000 people stayed in Scottish properties listed on the airbnb site.

the Planning Bill has been backed by the Scottish tories, but they suggest councils should have the power to set out their own policies.

tory tourism spokesman rachael hamilton said: ‘any changes have to be made where the evidence is clear. there is an issue in edinburgh, which locals are understandably concerned about, but this isn’t replicated in other parts of the country.’

the scale of the problem in edinburgh was highlighted this week, when an image emerged on social media of the doorway to a communal stairwell with 11 key safes beside it.

Key safes allow short-term visitors access without the homeowner having to be present to hand over keys.

Glasgow City Council has banned a man from renting out his £160,000 flat in Sauchiehall Street on airbnb after complaints about noise. Stephen McGlone, 47, is appealing to the Scottish Government.