Edinburgh in August: what the Festival does to renting
Renting · 6 min read · Reviewed
Every August Edinburgh's population swells by a substantial fraction and the city hosts the largest arts festival in the world. It is the best month to be here and the worst month to be looking for somewhere to live.
The reason is straightforward economics: for four weeks a flat is worth far more to visitors than to a tenant, which historically pulled a real share of the long-term stock out of the market every summer and pushed it back in every September.
Two things have changed that picture — short-term let licensing and a control area covering the whole city — and the effect is real but partial. This guide covers what actually happens, what the rules now are, and how to time a move around it.
What August does to the market
The visible effect is on availability rather than headline rent. Long-term listings thin out through the early summer in the areas closest to the venues, and viewings become more competitive because the same stock is chased by students arriving for the academic year at the same time.
The areas most affected are the ones nearest the main venue clusters: the Old Town, Newington, Marchmont, Bruntsfield and the West End. Leith, Gorgie and the outer suburbs feel it much less.
September is the other pressure point, because the Festival stock returns to the market at the same moment as the university intake. If you can move in October or in the spring, you are shopping in a materially calmer market.
| 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 |
What short-term let licensing changed
Scotland introduced a licensing scheme for short-term lets, and Edinburgh designated the whole council area as a short-term let control area — which means changing the use of a whole flat to a short-term let requires planning permission as well as a licence.
The practical effect has been to reduce the number of whole-property holiday lets in the city and to push some of that stock back towards long-term renting. The market is still tight, but the annual August evacuation is less pronounced than it was.
It has also made the sublet question sharper for tenants. Letting your flat out during the Festival is not the casual arrangement it once was: it will usually breach your tenancy, and it may require a licence you do not have.
If a landlord offers you a lease that conveniently ends in July, ask directly what happens in August. A tenancy shaped around the Festival calendar is a warning about how the property is really being used.
Your tenancy is more protected here than you may expect
Scotland abolished the fixed-term assured shorthold tenancy. A private residential tenancy is open-ended: there is no end date, no automatic expiry, and a landlord can only end it on one of the statutory grounds set out in the 2016 Act.
That matters enormously in a Festival city, because it means a landlord cannot simply decline to renew you in July in order to let the flat to visitors in August. Ending the tenancy requires a ground and, if you do not leave, a First-tier Tribunal decision.
Rent increases are also constrained: no more than once in twelve months, with formal notice, and a tenant can refer a proposed increase to Rent Service Scotland for adjudication. Neither of these protections exists in the same form in England.
Timing a move
The calmest windows are late autumn and the period from February to April. Stock is normal, competition is ordinary, and landlords who have had a property empty are more willing to negotiate.
The hardest window is mid-August to late September, when the Festival tail and the student intake overlap. If you must move then, have your paperwork assembled in advance and expect to decide quickly.
If you are arriving for a job with a fixed start date in the autumn, a short let for the first few weeks is often the cheaper mistake — it lets you view in person, in the right areas, without signing for a year on the strength of photographs.
Common questions
Do rents actually go up in Edinburgh during the Festival?
Long-term rents do not spike for a month; what changes is availability and competition. Stock near the main venues thins out over the summer and the September return of that stock collides with the student intake, so August and September are the hardest weeks of the year to find somewhere.
Can my landlord evict me so they can let the flat during the Festival?
No. A Scottish private residential tenancy is open-ended and can only be ended on one of the statutory grounds, with notice, and ultimately by a First-tier Tribunal decision if you do not leave. Wanting to let the property to visitors is not among those grounds.
Can I sublet my Edinburgh flat during the Festival?
Very probably not. Most tenancies prohibit subletting without written consent, and since Edinburgh became a short-term let control area, letting a whole property to visitors generally requires both a licence and planning permission. It is not the informal arrangement it used to be.