Citylets have released their latest Quarterly Report (Q4 2018) including data up to the end of December so here’s an Edinburgh rental market update summarising the key highlights for Edinburgh landlords.

Edinburgh rents rise to record highs…..again – Edinburgh rents have risen consistently each quarter for over 8 years. Traditionally it would be expected for rents to slow into the winter months but incredibly more records were smashed with average rents rising 7.8% Year on Year (YOY) to £1,095pcm.

Properties of all sizes saw rent increases with 1 bedrooms jumping 8.5% YOY, 2 and 3 beds rising 7.5% and 7.8% respectively and 4 bedroom properties increasing by a monster 10.3% (just under 50% growth in 10 years!). The average Time To Let properties was 23 days (unchanged from this time last year) and over 70% of 1 and 2 bedroom properties let within a month of being added to the market.

Taking Scotland as a whole, average rents across the country continued to increase up by 5% year-on-year (YOY) to £771pcm.

‘Family Matters’ –  Nationally, rents for 3 bedroom properties were up 7% YOY and 4 beds up 10.9%. According to Citylets, this rapid rent increase for larger properties is, in part, due to an increasing number of families living within the Private Rented Sector. It is estimated that 90,000 families now live in the PRS, making up a quarter of the market.

What’s happening at Umega? – Citylets findings on Edinburgh’srental market are pretty consistent with how we’ve found life at Umega over the past 12 months. Citylets average reported time to lets for 2018 was 26 days while at Umega our TTL for managed properties is 26 days (for these properties the current tenants would still be living in the property, serving their notice period and paying rent so this does not mean properties sit vacant) and for new properties to us it’s only 20 days. The average rent across our 1,000+ portfolio is now £1,075pcm, £20 off the Citylets numbers. In the past 6 months we’ve seen our Time To Lets fall, led by the fantastic work of our lettings team and helped by us now offering online viewing bookings (meaning tenants can book into viewing slots on our website at any time of day, or night).