Applications for new student housing and for a student flat block to be used as short-term lets over the summer have been approved by Edinburgh councillors.
A new 134-bed student flat complex in Dalry was given permission, over complaints of locals who said there were already too many student beds in the area.
Some 10% of the beds in the development, off West Park Place, will be studios, with the rest of the beds being in cluster flats.
The development will be across the street from an already existing student flat block, where rooms in shared flats start at £840 per month.
It will consist of two linked six-storey blocks with brick siding and metal roofing. Currently, a vacant industrial site is on the property.
Meanwhile, in Fountainbridge, a student housing block was given permission to let out its 69 beds as short-term lets over the summer.
The Keel Houses block had applied for annual permission to use the flats for short term lets for four months out of every year.
Locals had objected over concerns they would be used as ‘party flats’, with objectors noting the possibility of stag and hen dos staying in the short term lets.
The developers said in a planning application that staff would be onsite in daytime to respond to noise complaints.
And, they said that the nature of the rooms – all studio flats – would make it less attractive for large groups.
Councillors concurred with the recommendations of officers to approve both applications.
Xander Lyons, a local law student, previously told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “We have too many. There’s so many student housing buildings around here, we’ve got Orwell Terrace and Bainfield, and then IQ.
“It seems like every time there’s a new development planned, it’s student flats. If they were affordable, then great, but they’re not.
“You’re quite often sharing with eight other people, and you’re paying 800, maybe 900 pounds a month. It’s not going to help the housing crisis.”
By Joseph Sullivan Local Democracy Reporter
