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u/Mantises2400 1d ago edited 1d ago
These built-to-rent places are increasingly a blight on the housing market. The prices of them without being on an intermediate market rent rate are disgusting. Shock horror they try to rip people off for them as much as legally possible too. Just vacate and let them sit empty.
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u/pleasedomeafav 1d ago
By design the finance provider requires the landlord to max the rent and cut the maintenance for 0. I bet it's in the contract between them as well.
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u/Fit_Dog_1796 1d ago
Only they won't sit empty. It's a sellers' market sadly.
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u/fightitdude 1d ago
Trouble is they're really bloody expensive. They've been open for rent for over 12 months now and I'd estimate the building is about 50% full, if that.
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u/Kyrros 1d ago
One subreddit says it's buyers market, another says it's sellers, I'm just waiting for a crash
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u/Fit_Dog_1796 1d ago
I should rephrase. It's a landlord's market with high transactional volume. It's far more resilient than the housing market. So even if there's a crash, don't expect rents to suddenly plummet.
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u/ElectionSpirited914 8h ago
People have been patiently waiting for the housing market to crash since the mid nineties when prices began their crazy climb.
Prices might flatline or dip a few percent but I can't see how a crash is possible in Edinburgh. The city is highly desirable and therefore demand is huge.
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u/Funny-Profit-5677 1d ago
more supply = lower prices in the wider market, as long as it's occupied, we just need to build lots of flats, only way to curtail rents.
if they sit empty[they won't, they'll dynamically price them to keep them full at max profit], then rents everywhere else go up as there's more demand for fewer properties.
evidence:
https://www.ft.com/content/8c910a8f-2b8b-4234-918a-2022bdc01889?syn-25a6b1a6=1
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u/antequeraworld 1d ago
How much are they?
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u/Ok-Inflation4310 1d ago
One bed from £1525. 2 bed £1900 according to the website.
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u/antequeraworld 1d ago
Approaching London pricing. Who is paying such prices? They don’t strike me as people who would be seeking Living Rent support?
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u/fightitdude 1d ago
There's a bunch of mid-market rent flats too (I think the 1-beds are 800pm, for example). The market rate flats got a pretty small rent increase, mid-market got massive increases.
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u/Difficult-Reach-7779 1d ago
Do you know how much the increases were? I would be tempted if a place came up but worry about increases once you’re in.
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u/fightitdude 1d ago
I believe it was up to 20% for mid-market rent, and something like 6% for the full market rent ones. The increases come after 12 months of tenancy.
I'm hoping I'll have moved out before I hit 12 months, but even living in Edinburgh it's proving hard to find anything else...
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u/Glittering_Cheek5644 1d ago
I wonder what bills are included in that cost, and how it compares to standard private rental costs of a similar standard flat when totalled up. I was always under the impression they were quite good value for money comparatively but I may be mistaken.
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u/fightitdude 1d ago
WiFi is included, nothing else. Power is surprisingly expensive - I have a £45pm standing charge because there’s a separate standing charge for hot water, heating (electric of course), and power…
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u/Tundur 1d ago
I dunno, 1900 is a lot but the flats are high quality, and you get a gym and co-working space included.
A permanent desk in a co-working space is minimum £250 a month, often a lot more. Edinburgh leisure is £44 a month.
So that's down to £1600 for a spacious two bed, with access to massive entertaining spaces when you occasionally need them. That's not a horrible price, considering the quality of a two bed in Leith you'd get otherwise. They're a bit sterile and studenty but there's huge cohorts of yuppies that have lifestyles these places serve
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u/Kaffrogato 19h ago
Suggesting leaving flats empty while simultaneously complaining about the prices of rentals, is absolutely insane.
I swear people on Reddit just complain without putting a single thought behind what they are saying.
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u/CyberGnat 1d ago
Yet someone is willing to rent them. The landlord is charging what someone is willing to pay, even if it isn't the current tenant. Some people actually do earn enough and need a property enough to cover the cost.
Also, these seemingly high rents are really just getting closer to the real cost of living somewhere. You might have cheaper rent elsewhere but once you add in other costs like heating bills and having a PCP deal on a car, it ends up largely balancing out. Cheaper places are often also physically lower quality too.
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u/Stubbs94 1d ago
Or you know. Sometimes people don't have a choice other than to be scammed. For a lot of people it's either rent or be homeless.
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u/CyberGnat 1d ago
They don't live here. We have to be frank here. Not everyone who is a private tenant is on the verge of homelessness. Some people do actually have jobs which pay highly enough that the rents here are affordable. Some people do not have obligations like children. Some people live in households where both adults are high earners.
Yes there are problems but you cannot solve them without building more homes. Everything the rent activists do ends up making it harder to build more homes. If you want the wage to rent ratio to get better you have to build a lot of new homes, and especially homes on land where there isn't enough housing today. Every ancient tenement block the activists would screech about demolishing takes up land which could be used to build more modern higher rise buildings like these ones at the waterfront. Why shouldn't Leith Walk be 10 storeys and not just 3-5? Every new building with a lift provides flats that can be the home of someone who can't walk up and down stairs. Every shitty Victorian building we keep around without mandating that a lift be retrofitted is an affront to the rights of disabled people.
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u/tikkataka 1d ago edited 1d ago
The Google reviews also seem a bit fishy, lots of reviews left by people whove been "given a tour" or "visiting a friend" but don't actually live there, who I presume to be social media influencers paid for a review.
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u/here_just_for_lulz 1d ago
I'd be curious to see the people visiting friends. It looks like half the flats are still empty.
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u/antheve 1d ago
I moved in last year.
The rent was 750£ for one bedroom flat unfurnished, free 50mb wifi, free gym, parcel room (so no more needed to take day off to wait for a delivery), no gas (full electric) but you pay three standing charges of 15£/m for electricity (hot water, heater, general electricity) brand new basic furniture so no moldy laundry machine or greasy half broken cupboard. Pretty good deal
For my one year stay present i got a 140£/m rent increase. Now i pay almost 900£.
I look to move out but the prices are similar everywhere.
Like a flat in gorgie or close niddrie might be slightly lower rent but when you add wifi cost (plus gym if you use it), the price ends up the same, so i prefer staying in a quiet, clean modern flat.
However i am curious how dockside compare with the one in fountain bridge. They opened at the same time and i think ds was 1500£ for furnished 1bedroom while fb was 750£
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u/MiddleAgedDread123 1d ago
£900 for a new flat with WiFi and gym access still sounds like a good deal in the Edinburgh market to me!
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u/fightitdude 1d ago
Keep in mind that price is the mid-market rent. All the mid-market rent flats got taken up very very quickly. It's >1500pm if you're paying full market rent.
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u/MiddleAgedDread123 1d ago
ok that's quite pricey but they seem to be selling a "lifestyle" not just a rental apartment with other amenities on site and that appears to come with a premium price tag!
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u/fightitdude 1d ago
Yeah. I think it's a mix of people living here for the lifestyle and people living here as an inbetween while they look for something cheaper or look to buy a property. I'm in the latter group and well aware I'm getting rinsed but haven't been able to find alternatives yet...
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u/MiddleAgedDread123 1d ago
The thing is, there's very little in the city under £900 a month to rent apart from some rather dodgy areas and run down shoebox sized tenement flats which are nothing like as nice as where you are! Any cheaper and you're into flatshare territory.
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u/fightitdude 1d ago
I wish I were paying £900 lol, I moved in after they were all taken so I'm paying full market rate (about £1700).
There's plenty cheaper on the market but I've been trying to get one for months and yet to get anything!
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u/antequeraworld 14h ago
How does one get a mid market property? I mean do the council vet the applications or what ?
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u/antequeraworld 14h ago
Do you essentially mean you pay £45 fixed charge per month for electricity?
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u/antheve 13h ago
Yes three times 0.51£/day sc and electricity 0.20/unit
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u/antequeraworld 13h ago
Oh that’s even worse. £45 fixed charge per month (which in itself sounds dodgy) and usage at 20p per unit on top - that deal would rule me out never mind the monthly rent!
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u/antheve 12h ago
Well i think standing charge system is dodgy by itself (why paying same charge amount for 10 units used or 100)
But yeah it costs me twice compared to when i was paying for gas+elec in my previous flat and around the same usage price I am not using lot of energy so charges are easily+70% of my bill
They gave a reason why three charges for electricity but i don't remember rn
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u/Leithiopian1 1d ago
These work if you are trying to move house and need somewhere to stay whilst bridging the gap between selling and move in date. Not a long term solution but they do accept pets
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u/Definitely_maybe_McD 1d ago
Do they allow pets in the gym
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u/--cheese-- salt and sauce 1d ago
As long as they don't sleep on the equipment.
Dog nappers are finally banned.
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u/admedi 1d ago
These developments are just purpose built student accommodation for adults. I never thought anyone would actually live in these places long enough to experience a rent increase.
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u/jellical-cats 1d ago
In what ways are they like student accommodation?
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u/admedi 1d ago
These build to rent developments are cynically aimed at people who have experienced the nicer end of PBSA and want to stay in the city with all the convenience. Most are very lifestyle driven. Cinema rooms, social spaces, co-working, gym. The upsell is in the extras because the apartments are tiny.
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u/jellical-cats 1d ago
I've been in one of the flats and it was a normal sized flat - bigger than my tenement flat.
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u/antequeraworld 1d ago
Presumably smaller units than regular residential flats? Student accommodation builds don’t have to adhere to minimum sizing requirements and they attract favourable tax advantages for the developer/owner.
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u/jellical-cats 1d ago
I don't think it can be a size thing, because I've been in one of them when picking up a table from Facebook marketplace. It was just a normal sized flat. It was bigger than my tenement flat actually.
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u/meanmrmoutard 1d ago
The minimum space standards set by the Council are larger than traditional tenement flats in many cases.
The difference is often that bathrooms that meet modern accessibility standards take up a much higher proportion of the flat’s floor area than the skinny tenement special.
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u/jellical-cats 1d ago
I didn't see the bathroom. I just saw the living room/kitchen and the bedroom, and it was bigger than my normal 1-bed tenement flat.
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u/Kaffrogato 19h ago
You have no idea what you are talking about, they are far larger then student flats
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u/confushedtechie 1d ago
Thought regular increases would be expected from this kind of development?
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u/devicer2 1d ago
They're asking for 18%
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u/The_James91 1d ago
It sucks ass but rents are determined by supply and demand and the fundamental problem with Edinburgh's housing market is that we're not building enough to meet supply. The only solution is to build a fuckton of new homes and protests like this, however well-meaning, are not going to work.
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u/No_Dog7019 1d ago
protests like this changed a proposed 24% rent increase to 6% in the platform flats… so, while it won’t change the general plight, protests like these do actually work here and there.
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u/D3viantM1nd 1d ago
There's always a comment like this.
Thanks for spreading your sense of disillusionment, hopelessness and market fundamentalism.
In reality, there are things that can be done over and above getting on our hands and knees for mammon.
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u/farrago_uk 1d ago
Paradoxically new homes don’t reduce prices / rent. People want to live where there are lots of jobs, culture, amenities etc. You find those where there are lots of people. More homes = more people = more of all that = more desirable = yet more people wanting homes.
Hence why London, New York, Edinburgh, Paris are more expensive than Kirkcaldy, Nottingham, Mobile or wherever.
Want cheap home prices? Move somewhere with no jobs, culture or anything to do - perhaps an ex-mining or manufacturing village?
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u/CyberGnat 1d ago
Rents in Tokyo have been very stable despite the growth and desirability of the city. The fact that the Japanese are happy to knock buildings down after only 30-40 years makes it pretty easy to keep expanding supply. No one is clinging to a 150 year old building and not allowing it to be redeveloped. Their historic sites are often rebuilt every few decades anyway.
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u/thelazyfool 1d ago
Paradoxically new homes don’t reduce prices / rent
I'd be incredibly interested if you can find any literature that supports this for us to read.
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u/farrago_uk 1d ago
Nature ok? https://www.nature.com/articles/s42949-023-00136-7
Our findings indicate that housing costs tend to increase at a faster rate than population growth. As individuals and households with lower incomes tend to allocate a larger proportion of their earnings to housing expenses, an upward trajectory of housing costs may dramatically widen the inequality in income after housing expenditure.
Or NIH: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8730322/
Based on data from neighborhoods within the urban core (within 7.5 miles of the urban center), we find a positive relationship between density and constant quality home values in the core area. A 10 percent increase in density is associated with a 1.1 to 1.9 percent increase in house prices per square foot.
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u/thelazyfool 1d ago
I wouldn’t say either of those statements support the idea that building more homes increases prices.
Rather that it says that prices where more people live are higher, which I mean, duh?
Do you have anything that looks at the effect of prices following on from building?
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u/farrago_uk 1d ago
How did Edinburgh become a place where more people live? By building more housing for those people. Have prices been dropping in Edinburgh with all the incredibly dense (ie tiny) student flats being built (which should in theory reduce demand for all the other flats they would otherwise want). Or perhaps the huge amount of building in what was the geeen belt at Gogar/Maybury/Camo, Shawfair, out by QMU etc has brought prices down in the jar few years? The current prices in places with more and denser buildings is exactly the evidence you are looking for because at some point those buildings didn’t exist, now they do, and prices in those areas are higher.
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u/thelazyfool 1d ago
So that’ll be a no then on any literature to back up the statement, in favour of vibes based economics instead.
Do you not think prices might have gone up more if those places hadn’t been built? If I snapped my finger and 10000 rental properties disappeared in Edinburgh tonight, making the people in them need somewhere new to live - would the price of the other properties up for rent go up or down? i.e. do you believe in supply and demand at all
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u/farrago_uk 1d ago
I’m not sure what you are looking for? We built more denser homes a while ago, look at prices where we built those now and see they are higher. How is that not evidence that building denser homes increases prices? But let’s do something more specific:
in the year to the end of September 2025, the highest new build rates were in Midlothian, East Lothian and City of Edinburgh
https://www.ons.gov.uk/visualisations/housingpriceslocal/S12000036/?af731985_page=2&e6ac8ffd_page=16
The average house price in Edinburgh was £304,000 in July 2026 (provisional), up 4.0% from July 2025. This was higher than the rise in Scotland (2.3%) over the same period.
So the place in Scotland with the highest new build rate is also the place with the highest price increases.
Next you are going to say that it’s because it still lags demand, which is true. But the question is why is demand not just increasing but increasing faster than anywhere else in Scotland despite the rising house prices?
I know I’m not going to convince you out of what you wish to be true, so perhaps we can just watch the 4000 new homes being built at shawfair over the next few years and see if that reduces house prices in Edinburgh.
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u/thelazyfool 1d ago
Do you not see that that is all just correlation though? You’ve given no evidence of causation.
There will be lots of correlations out there that line up with house prices. If those areas had higher pubs per square kilometre than low housing cost areas, should we just start forcibly closing pubs in the hopes that makes housing cost less?
Thousands of homes are being built but it’s just not enough, there needs to be more.
Austin Texas built 120000 homes in 9 years, which increased total supply by 30%. Their rents dropped
Closer to home, here’s some data from the Greater London authority that building new market rate homes reduces the price inflation of all homes, and that it’s important to build in all areas not just low income ones, to ensure places aren’t quickly gentrified.
Demand in Edinburgh is increasing because it’s a fantastic city we’re lucky to live in, and lots of people want to move here. A lot of people are moving here from elsewhere because prices are actually lower compared to places with similar amenities
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u/Fairwolf 1d ago
I have no idea why you've been downvoted, you're patently correct. Edinburgh's insane rental market is because we have a massive housing shortage and aren't building enough new homes.
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u/Shrink1061_ 1d ago
Million / billionaires sipping champagne on a yacht tend not to care much about protests, and if a few sit empty, it’s unlikely to cause them long term issues. So sadly this stuff gets ignored. Edinburghs property boom will decline though, it has to. It’s unsustainable in its current form
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u/StraightPurpose5177 1d ago
The mid market rents aside, I had always assumed that the only people paying these extortionate prices for private build to rents, would probably be large corporations or wealthy employers to put employees up in, when accommodation comes with the job. I’ve always thought them to be unaffordable for the average private renter.
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u/Definitely_maybe_McD 1d ago
I assumed folk owned these, what the hell are you renting a place with a concierge, gym and rooftop terrace for in Edinburgh, it’s hardly New York. Absolutely nuts
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u/manfezzefnam 1d ago
It's student accommodation for non students... It's stupid imo. But if people still rent them out then they will continue
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u/antequeraworld 1d ago
Presumably they aren’t bound by the usual PRT rules? eg only one rent increase every 12mths etc
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u/Definitely_maybe_McD 1d ago
Whoever rents them is obviously wanting to appear like a high flyer, standing outside ranting about a rent increase in the wind and rain certainly ain’t that, and that alone is why they aren’t the correct clientele for those properties. Just be a normal person and rent somewhere without a gym or doorman/rooftop terrace for fucks sake. Not sure how many weeks a year that roof terrace is getting used anyway, 4 weeks possibly 🤦♂️
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u/fightitdude 1d ago
Or you need to move and you can’t find anywhere else on the market. This was literally the only place that would rent to me after I did a bunch of viewings of flats on Rightmove/OpenRent/etc. I’m not happy about the cost but at least I have a place to live 🤷
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u/readreadmagie 16h ago
Same here! I just moved from Canada and do not know anyone in the UK. Without credit information, a steady job or a UK guarantor these built to rent buildings were the only ones willing to rent to me. Most places wouldn't even arrange a viewing after learning I didn't have a full-time job even with bank statements of savings.
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u/LadyShareeen 1d ago
There are mid market renters in the building and they were the affected ones, so maybe shut up if you don’t know anything.
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u/Definitely_maybe_McD 23h ago
I was offered a flat there just as they were being built, I asked regards mid market rent costs and how much could the possible rent increases be within the following year, I was advised they aren’t bound by any regulations, so can inflate them to what they think the demand is, I turned the offer down immediately and found a place in Newhaven. Would have been mental otherwise
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u/Marquis_de_Dustbin 1d ago
Not a lot of options when a tenancy ends suddenly. Know a lot of folk who are living in places they too think is stupid out of a combination of scarcity of options and time to actually look around
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u/Oohbunnies 1d ago
They shouldn't stand there for too long, someone may try and try and turn them into student halls!
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u/Substantial_Dot7311 1d ago
Y’all hated the wee private landlords saving for pension, this is the result, enjoy!
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u/FeivelM 1d ago
Solidarity with them but god when I saw the ads for those places it had bait and switch written all over it.