Since 2023, the City of Edinburgh Council has processed a substantial number of license applications; by early 2025 over 4,000 STL licences had been granted for home sharing, home letting, and secondary letting. But planning refusals remain exceptionally high and have become the critical constraint.
Edinburgh is designated as an STL control area, meaning that using an entire property that is not a principal residence is automatically treated as a material change of use requiring planning consent.
Freedom of Information data from 2024 and 2025 reveals that around 90 per cent of STL planning applications have been refused since 2023, and for traditional residential properties, the refusal rate climbed to over 95 per cent.
Approvals are almost exclusively limited to office-to-service apartment conversions, highly restrictive or time-limited permissions, and exceptional personal or institutional circumstances. Core secondary letting in standard residential tenements is now very rarely approved.
Certificates of Lawfulness remain a limited but important route to approval. If operators can demonstrate longstanding use as an STL, these applications show a markedly lower refusal rate of approximately 25 per cent. Success depends heavily on robust, continuous evidence of use and the absence of enforcement history. Minor breaks in evidence, even during the pandemic, have in some cases been sufficient to lead to refusal, adding further uncertainty.
A December 2023 judicial review confirmed that City of Edinburgh Council cannot apply planning control retrospectively to all existing STL operators. However, while this clarified elements of the process, it has not resulted in a material softening of planning outcomes in practice.
Planning policy continues to prioritise protection of residential housing stock, particularly in the city centre, Old Town and New Town, where refusals are most concentrated.
The overall result since 2023 has been a growing disconnect: operators hold valid STL licences but cannot operate lawfully due to planning refusal; significant costs are incurred on licensing, compliance and professional fees before planning decisions are known, and appeals and legal challenges are increasing, adding even more uncertainty and delay.
The Scottish Government has acknowledged concerns that refusal rates resemble a blanket ban but maintains that planning decisions rest with local authorities.
In practical terms, the market for new residential short-term lets in Edinburgh is now largely closed, unless lawful existing use can be proven or the property falls outside mainstream residential stock.
For operators, investors, and managing agents, the message since October 2023 has been consistent: planning risk now defines the viability of short-term letting in Scotland’s capital.