How well is the Edinburgh private rental market performing? Q4 2019 Analysis

Edinburgh-at-night-Edinburgh-private-rental-market-Q4-2019

Our experience of the Edinburgh private rental market over Q4 2019 was of strong demand, followed by the expected seasonal slowdown towards the festive period.

Up-to-date knowledge of the private rental sector (PRS) is vital in ensuring that we continue to provide an excellent, efficient service to our clients. Citylets’ quarterly reports offer an overview of Scotland’s private rental market performance along with detailed data for Edinburgh. These provide a benchmark for our own experience each quarter.

The private rental market in Scotland

The Q4 2019 Citylets report found that the prolonged political uncertainty of Brexit and the December general election had little effect on the Scottish PRS. The average Time to Let (TTL) fell, and the increasing trend in average monthly rents continued.

The Edinburgh private rental market

Citylets’ report found that the Edinburgh private rental market finished 2019 strongly, with the market moving quickly. However, the rate of growth is slowing, with the year on year increase at 3.6%.

Some agents noted the effect of the introduction of Private Residential Tenancies (PRTs) on the student market, and expect to experience demand from students earlier in the year in 2020. It is felt that landlord and investor confidence in Edinburgh’s private rental market remains positive.

  • The average TTL is 22 days, 5 days faster than in the last quarter, and 1 day faster than Q4 2018.
  • Average rents have increased by 3.6% year on year, to a new all-time high of £1,148 per month.
  • 74% of all properties were let within a month, up from 67% in the previous quarter.
Edinburgh private rental market performance - Q4 2019
Citylets Q4 2019 Report – Market overview of the private rental sector – Edinburgh

 

Our experiences: At Home In Edinburgh

Our focus has been to improve the quality of our adverts with good photography and by increasing the detail given for both the property itself and its location. We believe this will drive an increase in enquiries and ensure that we continue to attract better quality tenants. In addition, this has already had a positive impact on our time to let. We are now also producing floor plans for our properties, with the aim of increasing the conversion rate of viewers to applications.

Long term lettings

Rick McCann, At Home In Edinburgh’s Director, advised that demand remained strong through the quarter, allowing for the expected annual slowdown towards the festive period.

We did experience a higher than usual amount of tenancies turning over in the later part of December, resulting in a relatively high number of properties on the market as we went into the New Year. We saw these properties occupied in January with an upturn in demand and our own proactive promotion.

Our average TTL was just 11 days – half of the Edinburgh average of 22 days. Based on the Edinburgh average monthly rent of £1,134, our faster letting time meant that our landlords would receive an extra £410 in rent compared to the city average.

Continued foreign interest in property investment

Over this last quarter we have worked to source properties for several foreign buy-to-let landlords, who were taking advantage of the deflated value of the pound as a result of Brexit.

Free Buy-To-Let Assessment Service

We offer a free, no obligation Buy-to-Let Assessment service for property investors, which helps landlords to clarify their objectives, to source and view properties and provides an expert rental assessment. This assessment considers a property’s potential for long term lets on a PRT and short term lets on a holiday let contract.

If you’d like to know more about this service please get in touch; email us at [email protected] or call us on 0131 229 4001. Our friendly, professional team is always happy to help with any queries – we’re proud that 100% of our landlords would recommend us to other landlords.