Tenants and protesters stormed a recently built apartment block in Leith on Friday (JUL 3) over an alleged rent increase of almost 25%.
The protest, organised by tenants campaign group Living Rent, took place in the Platform apartment block in Bonnington.
Chanting “Platform come off it, homes for people not for profit”, residents and other protesters entered and occupied the building’s reception area.
The group attempted to arrange a meeting with building management, after residents were hit with an alleged rent increase of 24%.
An employee responded that following phone calls with management, a meeting would be arranged on a different day.
Built by residential real estate company Heimstaden, Platform opened its doors in November 2024 as a build-to-rent development.
Included in the 463 home block are 116 affordable units. The City of Edinburgh Council’s affordable housing policy as of November 2025 states that developments “consisting of 12 or more units should normally provide affordable housing amounting to 35% of the total number of units proposed”.
The block includes intermediate market rent and build-to-rent flats.
The 24% hike so far applies to intermediate market rent tenants who moved into the development when it was first built in November 2024. Currently, tenants who moved in later have not had the increase applied.
The 24% rent increase changes the rent from £748 to £927 for a one bed, £967 to £1,197 for a two bed and £1,400 to £1,700 for a three bed.
In March 2026, the Scottish Government laid out regulation exempting mid-market rent, intermediate market rent, and build-to-rent properties from rent controls under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025, despite 94% of respondents to a September 2025 consultation stating their opposition to the plans.
Robbie Alexander, who has lived in the Platform block for a year and a half, said that he had heard other tenants had first been made aware of the rent increase two months ago.
He said: “I am here in support of the people that have been handed this notice.
“I wasn’t aware that mid markets, intermediate markets, and built rents have been excluded from the rent control measures, and I’m very much of the opinion that there’s no reason why they should have been.
“There was a consultative ballot, where 94% returned a vote to say that these should not be excluded from that bill.
“So now organisations like Platform are slapping tenants with a 24% rent increase, because they can.”
On his experience living in the block, Robbie said: “There’s a few problems here and there, so there’s things like maintenance requests that take a while to get back, or I’ve had them before where I’ve submitted a maintenance request and it’s been marked as closed, but nothing’s happened.
“Other than that, generally my experience has been fine.”
A spokesperson for PLATFORM_ in Edinburgh said: “Rents for Intermediate Market apartments are set in line with the Scottish Government’s published Broad Rental Market Area rent schedule and in accordance with the planning framework for the development.
“We are confident that our Intermediate Rent apartments continue to provide excellent value for residents, remaining significantly below comparable open market rents in Edinburgh, while offering access to a professionally managed development with a dedicated on site team and a range of high-quality on-site amenities, including a gym, roof terraces and co-working facilities.
“We encourage any residents with questions about their tenancy to contact the team directly.”
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