A fresh battle over holiday accommodation in Edinburgh is heading to councillors, with three apartments on the Royal Mile among a series of short-term let applications due to be decided this week.
City of Edinburgh Council’s Development Management Sub-Committee will consider five short-term accommodation planning applications when it meets on Wednesday, 21 October.
Three centre on the same historic building at 219 High Street on the Royal Mile, while councillors will also consider a flat at Cowgatehead and an application covering two serviced apartments in Broughton Place Lane.
The cluster of cases brings Edinburgh’s long-running argument over the balance between tourism accommodation and permanent homes back into focus.
At 219 High Street, applications have been submitted to change Units 6, 7 and 9 from residential use to short-term let accommodation. The applications for Units 6 and 7 are retrospective, meaning the change of use has already taken place, while the application for Unit 9 seeks permission for the same switch.
All three have been lodged by 150 High Street Residences Ltd, with Ferguson Planning acting as agent.
The location makes the cases particularly sensitive. Numbers 215–219 High Street form a Category A-listed tenement in the heart of Edinburgh’s Old Town and World Heritage Site.
The building also has an important place in the city’s social history. Number 219 became the Hospice and dispensary founded by pioneering doctor and women’s rights campaigner Elsie Inglis in 1904, providing maternity and midwifery services for poorer women. Plaques commemorating Inglis remain on the building.
The property is already associated with visitor accommodation, with apartments at the address marketed to tourists as being directly on the Royal Mile.
Another application going before councillors involves Flat 1 at 4 Cowgatehead, close to the Grassmarket.
That proposal seeks retrospective permission to use the flat as short-term let accommodation. The application was submitted in September 2025 and attracted four recorded public comments during consultation.
The fifth case is at 11 and 12 Broughton Place Lane, where retrospective permission is being sought to operate two properties as serviced apartments.
Edinburgh’s short-term let crackdown
The decisions come against the backdrop of Edinburgh’s particularly strict planning regime for holiday accommodation.
The entire City of Edinburgh Council area has been designated a short-term let control area since September 2022 – the first such designation in Scotland.
As a result, turning an entire home which is not someone’s principal residence into a short-term let is treated as a material change of use and requires planning permission. Home sharing and limited letting of somebody’s principal residence are generally treated differently.
That planning system operates separately from Scotland’s short-term let licensing regime, meaning operators can potentially require both planning permission and a licence before legally running accommodation.
The council assesses applications individually, taking into account issues including the effect on neighbouring residents, the character of an area and the loss of permanent residential accommodation.
Those considerations have already proved decisive in a succession of Old Town cases. Earlier this year planning officers recommended refusing a holiday let at Fleshmarket Close, off the Royal Mile, arguing that its impact on neighbouring residents and the unjustified loss of a home outweighed the wider economic benefits of tourist accommodation.
The latest applications put some of Edinburgh’s most tourism-heavy streets back at the centre of the debate: whether holiday accommodation is an appropriate part of life in the Old Town, or whether flats in the historic centre should be preserved primarily as permanent homes.
Councillors are due to consider all five applications at the Development Management Sub-Committee on Wednesday.