Dalriada pub in Portobello has been sold and planning permission has been submitted to convert it into 3 flats
Miserable.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh
"Holiday Flats Edinburgh's Ruin"
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Posted 4 years ago #
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Meanwhile, was anyone else at the Cockburn Association thing in Central Hall last week? Presentations now online (though of course they only give a partial sense of the speakers).
Andy Wightman had no slides but "gave an expert talk on Common Good land and the failure of local authorities across Scotland to effectively manage common goods assets." - he actually began in the 15th century, and took a detour via the early 19th century St Andrews' Rabbit Wars* on his way to his conclusion - all in ten minutes - to the slight bafflement of some of the audience.
* if you need to know more: https://golfhistorynut.wordpress.com/2012/05/17/the-untold-story-of-st-andrews-rabbit-wars-of-1801-1821/
Posted 4 years ago # -
He's also set up this new thing - a survey of STLs in Edinburgh: https://www.homesfirst.scot/
Posted 4 years ago # -
Posted 4 years ago #
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"International visitors put Edinburgh on the international map and help support all parts of the local economy Our story is if incredible growth which we should be proud of says Robin Worsnop outgoing chair of
@ETAG_UK"https://twitter.com/EdinReporter/status/1222877565850988544
Edinburgh is hardly an obscure European city, an undiscovered gem.
Posted 4 years ago # -
The tourism industry bigwigs seem to be very defensive all of a sudden. Insisting we should be "proud" of the ludicrous and hazardous overcrowding at peak visitor times is just not on. Try walking on South Bridge or George IV Bridge or Middle Meadow Walk during the festival. Try getting into Princes Street Gardens during the Summer Sessions or Xmas Festival... Try getting into the city centre on Hogmanay, with or without a ticket...
Posted 4 years ago # -
Adam McVey has got very defensive, accusing a lot of the anti-tourist saturation of being xenophobic. No doubt some is, but he shouldn't confuse online trolling with reasonable concerns.
Posted 4 years ago # -
I wonder how many of us have taken a holiday and been that foreign tourist, making up part of the crowd in someone else's city?
Posted 4 years ago # -
@AKen often - and have seen that the locals are not happy about it and are trying to find ways of dealing with it.
Posted 4 years ago # -
@AKen It's fine - necessary, I should say - to recognise that we might ourselves have been, however unknowingly, doing some harm on our holidays.
But this isn't "no tourists, anywhere, ever" - it's the recognition that "the market" left to itself is not a neutral actor that leads to neutral and equitable outcomes but can often take the profits while externalising the penalties (private profits, public burdens).
There's also a broader issue of how we expect councils and government more generally to relate to the people they represent - as just a sub-category of consumers, or as citizens?
Posted 4 years ago # -
Prague fights back. When I was there cluttering up the place, I was appalled at the number of tourists and the guide to our walking tour said that it was making hard for the locals. She also said that people had got so sick of laws under Communism they were chary of more regulation.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/01/overwhelmed-prague-tries-to-limit-airbnb-to-curb-tourism?CMP=share_btn_twPosted 4 years ago # -
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The highest incidence of Airbnbs was in Edinburgh Old Town, where there were 29 active listings for every 100 properties.
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Posted 4 years ago # -
"Airbnb questioned the accuracy of the findings, emphasising that unusual listings such as caravans or large manor houses, used for events, may not affect the local housing stock."
Yep, lots of those in the Old Town. Not.
Posted 4 years ago # -
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As well as issues about how the growth of tourism has affected Edinburgh, the summit is expected to look at other parts of the country which have struggled with a swift increase in visitors.
Prince Harry is visiting Edinburgh less than a year after it was named one of the world’s worst-affected overtourism hotspots, along with the likes of Amsterdam, Rome, Venice and Barcelona. It was also cited alongside the Taj Mahal, in India, the Peruvian citadel of Machu Picchu, Dubrovnik, in Croatia, and Iceland as famous destinations "that can no longer cope with their own popularity."
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Posted 4 years ago # -
“
Airbnb started as a way to help two friends handle a rent hike. Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky had just quit their jobs to start a business when their landlord jacked up the rent by 20%. But a big design conference was coming to town, and all San Francisco’s hotels were fully booked. Joe had an idea: “Brian, I thought of a way to make a few bucks – turning our place into ‘designers’ bed and breakfast’.”
Three air mattresses in the living room became a $31bn business. Today, parts of the UK – such as Edinburgh Old Town, or the Devon village of Woolacombe – have around one Airbnb listing for every four properties. In cities and tourist destinations around the world, landlords keep increasing rents by 20% or more. Yet Airbnb now appears to be the cause rather than the solution.
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Increasingly, it appears that Airbnb hosts aren’t ordinary people renting out a spare room, but profiteering landlords and rent-to-rent chancers leasing entire apartment blocks. Travellers report being let down by dodgy accommodations and a cheap, identikit “Airspace” aesthetic. Local people are being displaced from their neighbourhoods.
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/22/airbnb-model-housing-sharing
Posted 4 years ago # -
Edinburgh has been ranked 15th among more than 100 cities globally for its “world-leading” concentration of talent, according to a new report from JLL.
[It is] home to tech incubator CodeBase and a thriving tech scene; its renowned universities; its highly educated workforce; its relatively high population of 20- to 40-year-olds; its relatively high level of research and development (R&D) spend; and its receipt of more high-tech foreign direct investment than any other UK city outside London from 2015 to 2018.
All of this, excluding foreign investment, should mean less car-dominated, more active travel.
However add the tourism and Airbnb and universities and that means pressure on rented accommodation.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Dublin is seeing a lot of flats coming back on the rental market, some offering up to 3 months free rent. The expectation is that rents will drop in Dublin over the next few months. If CV drags on through the summer, hopefully these properties won't revert back to short term lets.
Also, I was in ireland last week and a friend was telling me about one of his old uni pals. He rents several flats in Dublin and sublets them on Airbnb, assume this is pretty common in Dublin, London and probably Edinburgh. I'd find it hard to be sympathetic if these guys lost their shirts over the next couple of months
Posted 4 years ago # -
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On Tuesday night, the children’s commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, urged ministers to allow councils to requisition empty Airbnb properties as short-term rental blocks and hotels that had rooms with cooking facilities to put up homeless families .
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Posted 4 years ago # -
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@PLACEEdinburgh
Hi @KateForbesMSP . Heard you talking about financially supporting short term let owners on #bbcgms - 2h.11mins in https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000gkhg
Can we ask that this only applies to short term let owners that have planning permission to operate as holiday let businesses?---
Posted 4 years ago # -
Edinburgh landlords are calling on council officials to waive council tax on properties which are lying empty due to the coronavirus lockdown.
“You would think that while we are all in this together the council tax would be waived on empty flats.”Posted 4 years ago # -
@bax san as if the council doesn’t need the council tax to survive??
Posted 4 years ago # -
seems everyone else should bear the burden because we're all in it together ?
entitled muppetry at its finest
Posted 4 years ago # -
“You would think that while we are all in this together the council tax would be waived on empty flats.”
I've been an accidental landlord in the past (long story and long term residential, not Airbnb, don't shoot me!) and I seem to remember you could reduce the bill to 10% if the property is uninhabited anyway so not sure what they're moaning about. IMO budgeting for void periods and the resultant costs (insurance, CT) should be part of their planning.
Posted 4 years ago # -
IIRC you only get a 100% discount council tax for certain reasons. The unoccupied property discount is only temporary and depends on the use of the property, whether its being advertised etc.
Anyway many AirBnBs are registered as small businesses and don't pay council tax anyway (most don't pay business rates either due to small business exemption). So asking for a council tax discount seems dodgy at best for short-let landlords: are they running a business or not?
EDIT: It seems holiday let owners can get a 50% discount anyway! Seems generous...
https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/discounts-exemptions/holiday-home-discount
Posted 4 years ago # -
While elements of the Edinburgh festivals may irk locals, and in many cases have a real impact on quality of life, there’s broadly a lot of good feeling towards its more enjoyable aspects. The desire to sort out the negatives of overtourism is not so far matched by a desire to see the festivals cease to exist.
Already, some independent producers have spoken of perhaps visiting Edinburgh for a micro-Fringe this August, if public health advice permits, or to stage a digital programme. Otherwise, eyes will turn towards what may be possible in 2021, for the 73rd Edinburgh Festival in 74 years. The festival has a history of uniting nations through art and performance, it has broad public goodwill behind it, and it has a deadline. It’s well-placed to become the laboratory in which the international arts festival of the future is developed.
Posted 4 years ago #
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