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Estate agency’s Airbnb recommendation sparks campaigner’s fury

Campaigners claim agency Warnes shouldn't be urging buyers to invest in properties specifically for Airbnb usage in Edinburgh.

Nigel Lewis

airbnb

A high profile estate agent in Scotland has been attacked by housing campaigners after listing a property for sale in Edinburgh as ‘ideal for Airbnb’.

Such a description for homes advertised for sale in most urban areas of the UK would attract little comment.

But the Scottish capital is the crucible for an ongoing and hotly-contested debate over the hundreds of properties in the city that have converted to Airbnb usage.

This had died down during the Coronavirus lockdown when Airbnb bookings were outlawed during the travel ban, but an advert by estate agency Warners for a flat on Nicholson Street (pictured) in the city has fanned the flames once more.

Affordable housing campaigners in the city have told local media that they don’t believe estate agents should “advertise, facilitate, or encourage unlawful short-term letting in Edinburgh”.

Planning

This refers to Edinburgh’s Council’s recent announcement that change of use planning permission “in flatted properties will generally only be acceptable where there is a private access from the street”.

A statement from campaigning group PLACE, said it is “very concerned that any estate agent in the city should be advertising a flat as ‘ideal for an Airbnb’ given that the Edinburgh Council has made clear in its Guide for Business that it does not give Planning Permission to flats with shared entrances”.

Ironically, Warners has a blog on its website warning buyers that Airbnb properties often don’t stack up financially if bought as investments, that landlords would be ‘better off letting their property out through traditional methods’ and warning of public concern about Airbnb ‘party flats’.

Read more about Airbnb.

June 18, 2020

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