How much do you need to earn to live in Edinburgh?
Money · 8 min read · Reviewed
Edinburgh is the most expensive place to rent in Britain outside London and the South East, and the gap has widened sharply over the last few years. A small, tightly bounded city with two large universities, a substantial short-let sector and very little new supply produces exactly that result.
There is a second complication here that does not exist anywhere else on this site: income tax is devolved. Scotland has six bands rather than three, and the higher rate starts at £43,662 rather than £50,270. Below about £30,000 a Scottish taxpayer is marginally better off than an English one; above about £43,000 they are worse off, and by £60,000 the difference is around £1,750 a year.
This guide works the question backwards — from a monthly rent figure to the gross salary that supports it, on the Scottish bands — so you can see where your own number falls.
Start from the rent, not the salary
The usual advice is to spend no more than a third of your take-home pay on rent. That is a reasonable ceiling and a poor target: at a third you can still absorb a boiler failure or a month between jobs, and past 45% you are one unexpected bill away from a problem.
The table below grosses that back up through Scottish income tax and National Insurance for the salary rungs used across this section. Compare any of these figures against a UK-wide take-home calculator and you will get a different answer — the calculators default to the English bands unless you tell them otherwise, and that is one of the most common budgeting mistakes people make when moving to Scotland.
| Salary | Take-home / month | Rent at 35% | Rent at 40% |
|---|---|---|---|
| £25,000 | £1,797 | £629 | £719 |
| £30,000 | £2,096 | £734 | £838 |
| £35,000 | £2,392 | £837 | £957 |
| £40,000 | £2,688 | £941 | £1,075 |
| £43,000 | £2,865 | £1,003 | £1,146 |
| £50,000 | £3,169 | £1,109 | £1,268 |
| £58,000 | £3,541 | £1,239 | £1,416 |
| £65,000 | £3,867 | £1,353 | £1,547 |
Where the Scottish bands actually bite
Below around £30,000 the Scottish starter and basic rates leave you fractionally better off than you would be in England — about £40 a year, which is not a reason to do anything.
The band between £43,662 and £50,270 is the one worth understanding. Scotland's higher rate of 42% starts at the bottom of it, and National Insurance does not drop from 8% to 2% until the top of it. For those seven thousand pounds of salary the combined marginal rate is 50%, which is the most heavily taxed stretch of an ordinary Scottish salary and something worth knowing before negotiating a raise into it.
At £50,000 a Scottish taxpayer takes home about £1,500 a year less than an English one on the same salary. At £60,000 it is about £1,750, and at £100,000 about £3,300. Set against Edinburgh's council tax, which is roughly £1,100 a year below Bristol's at Band D, the two partially cancel — but not at the top end.
Between £43,662 and £50,270 a Scottish salary faces a 42% income tax rate and 8% National Insurance at the same time. That 50% marginal band is the single most useful thing to know about pay in Scotland.
What the city actually costs
Five points across the distribution of the areas covered here. The spread is narrower than in the English regions on this site, because Edinburgh is small and its cheap areas are not very cheap.
Rooms are the number most people should look at first, and Edinburgh's room market is the tightest outside London. It also has a seasonal shape nowhere else shares: a substantial part of the flat stock moves to short lets for August, and rooms advertised in July and August price accordingly. If you can time a move for the winter, the same room is measurably cheaper.
| Area | 1-bed | 2-bed | Room |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bathgate | £650 | £825 | £470 |
| Penicuik | £800 | £1,025 | £520 |
| Corstorphine | £925 | £1,200 | £590 |
| Leith | £1,075 | £1,400 | £640 |
| New Town | £1,350 | £1,800 | £720 |
The things the rent figure leaves out
Council tax in Edinburgh is low by English standards — £1,626 at Band D against Bristol's £2,714 — but the bill you receive is not that number. Scottish Water's charges are collected on the same bill and add roughly £652 a year at Band D. Budget for the total, not the headline.
Heating is the cost people underestimate. Edinburgh's tenement and Georgian stock is beautiful, cold and frequently listed, which means the windows cannot be replaced. A top-floor New Town flat in January is a genuinely expensive thing to keep warm.
Transport is one thing the city gets right. Lothian Buses charges a flat fare for any journey within the city and is among the best-run networks in Britain; a monthly pass covers everything. Beyond the bypass you are on ScotRail, and a season ticket from Livingston or Dunbar is a real monthly cost.
Monthly costs beyond rent, for a single person in a one-bed
- Council tax at Band B in Edinburgh: about £105 a month, before any discount
- Scottish Water charges at Band B: about £48 a month, collected on the same bill
- Single-person discount: 25% off both, so roughly £115 a month combined at Band B
- Energy in a tenement or Georgian flat: £100 to £180 a month depending on the season
- A Lothian Buses monthly pass: around £65, covering any journey in the city
Common questions
Is Edinburgh expensive to live in?
For rent, yes — it is the most expensive city in Britain outside London and the South East, and rents have risen faster here than almost anywhere. Council tax runs strongly the other way: Edinburgh's Band D charge including water is still well below any English city covered on this site.
Do you pay more tax in Scotland?
It depends on the salary. Below about £30,000 a Scottish taxpayer pays marginally less than an English one. Above about £43,000 they pay more, and the gap widens — roughly £1,500 a year at £50,000, £1,750 at £60,000 and £3,300 at £100,000. National Insurance is reserved and identical across the UK.
What is a good salary in Edinburgh?
Around £28,000 makes a comfortable shared life straightforward. Around £45,000 makes living alone in an inner suburb realistic. The city centre and the New Town start to open up past £55,000, which is a higher threshold than any English city covered on this site.