Edinburgh rental costs ‘sky high’
● Almost £900 to rent two-bed flat ● ‘Not enough affordable housing’
Political leaders have warned Edinburgh’s cost of living is being pushed “sky high” due to a lack of affordable housing.
Rents in the city and the surrounding Lothians have soared relative to the rest of Scotland.
A two-bedroom flat in Edinburgh now costs almost £900 a month on average compared to about £550 outside the capital. Rent costs in Edinburgh have climbed 33.7 per cent in the past seven
The soaring cost of living in Edinburgh and the Lothians is outstripping the rest of Scotland, official figures have shown.
The average rental cost of a two-bedroom flat now stands at almost £900. The same type of property costs about £550 across the rest of Scotland, on average, excluding the capital.
Political leaders say rents are being “pushed sky high” because of a lack of affordable housing.
Private rents now account for about a third of all households in Edinburgh – roughly 140,000 city residents – after numbers soared in the years following the financial crash.
There has been a rise of 33.7 per cent in rent costs between 2010-17 in Edinburgh and the Lothians, the Scottish Government figures show, including a rise of 6.9 per cent between 2016 and 2017. Glasgow has also seen a 32.1 per cent since the start of the decade and 7 per cent over the year.
All other areas of Scotland are below the national average of 19.9 per cent and 4.4 per cent respectively. Andy Wightman, the Green MSP for the Lothians said: “Across the city of Edinburgh and the Lothian region, people are struggling to pay for everyday needs as the cost of accommodation soars. For the average resident, this means that 45 per cent of their salary goes directly to landlords before any other household bills are paid.”
The Tories want to see greater use of brownfield developments and the creation of more new towns to address the issue.
The average cost of renting a two bedroom property in Edinburgh and the Lothians jumped by more than £50 inside a year from £831 in 2016 to about £888 last year. At the top end of the property market, rents have reached £975 for a two-bedroom flat in the capital. The statistics are based on advertised rents for new lets and don’t include changes in rents for existing tenants.
For a one-bedroom flat, it now costs more than £700 to rent a one-bedroom flat in the capital on average – up from £520 at the start of the year.
Adam Lang of Shelter Scotland, said: “Rent increases of these amounts will hurt those who are already living on a knife-edge. We already know that a great many families are struggling day-to-day to keep a roof over their heads. Affordability was the single biggest reason people came to Shelter Scotland with last year and private renters are the biggest group who contact Shelter Scotland for help.”
Ministers have already introduced new private residential tenancies which will include a limit on one rent increase in a year, three months-notice of any increase and an opportunity to appeal.