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Edinburghreal estate

Edinburgh is Scottish law end to end: LBTT instead of SDLT, 8% ADS on an additional home, missives that bind before an English exchange would, and a city-wide short-term let control area.

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+2%non-resident SDLT surcharge in England
+5%additional-dwelling surcharge on the whole price
Exchangethe moment an offer becomes a contract
Leaseholdmost flats — term, ground rent, service charge
What a purchase really costs

£500,000 home in Edinburgh

Stamp duty (slice bands) — LBTT
£23,350
Legal, searches & Land Registry (≈0.4%)
£2,000
Survey (≈0.2%)
£1,000
Cash needed at completion
£526,350

≈ +5.3% over the price. Scotland is a different tax and a different contract: LBTT with 8% ADS, and missives that bind earlier than an English exchange. In England and Wales an offer binds nobody until exchange — gazumping is legal, which is why the survey and the searches come before the celebration. A second or additional dwelling adds 5% SDLT on the whole price.

Rentals run on rules

The let side, in three lines

  • A tenant deposit must sit in a government-approved protection scheme within 30 days — unprotected deposits cost the landlord up to three times the sum.
  • The Renters’ Rights Act ends assured shorthold fixed terms and section 21 no-fault eviction; possession now runs through stated statutory grounds.
  • An EPC of E or better is required to let, and a leasehold flat carries ground rent, service charge and a term that shortens every year.

Yield on a leasehold flat is service charge minus optimism. Read the last three years of accounts and the cladding/EWS1 file.

Cities

Six metros, two tax systems

England and Northern Ireland pay SDLT; Scotland pays LBTT on its own bands and binds at missives, not exchange. Edinburgh and London are not the same transaction with different weather.

The short-term let licensing scheme plus the city-wide control area means a change of use is required to operate a whole-property holiday let. This is the most restrictive short-let regime of any city on sivrce — the licence, not the flat, is the constraint.

Offers are usually made over a Home Report valuation, and once missives conclude you are bound. There is no gazumping window and no casual withdrawal; the survey work happens before the offer, not after.

New Town and Old Town stock is conservation-area listed with common-repair obligations shared across a stair. A tenement roof is everyone’s bill.

FAQ

Is buying here the same as in England?
No. Different tax (LBTT), different contract (missives), different survey model (Home Report), different letting rules. Treat it as a separate jurisdiction, because it is one.
Can I run a holiday let?
Only with a licence and, for a whole property in the control area, planning permission for change of use. Assume no until both are in hand.

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