Around 35% of town centre homes are short term lets. Let’s take a further look…

We recently conducted some research into short term lets in North Berwick. A full report is available for members (membership is free) but here are some of the headlines.

Did you know there are 232 short-term holiday let properties in North Berwick, representing 538 bedrooms, mostly in one-, two- and three-bedroom flatted properties in the town centre.

This represents over 35% of the housing stock in the centre of town. Further properties that are holiday lets but not advertised online, or which are second homes, push these percentages much higher, probably to between 40% and 50% of properties.

About a third of these are owned locally - with a rapid rise in absentee investors occurring over the past few years.

Half of the short-term let properties are managed by businesses outside East Lothian

Our research shows that the economic, social, demographic, and environmental impacts of the over-abundance of short-term holiday lets in North Berwick are deep and wide-reaching, with a significant impact on both the community and for East Lothian Council.

The main impacts of short-term holiday let accommodation in North Berwick are.  

· the resulting reduction in affordable homes, most of which were in the town centre,

· the displacement of approximately 10% of residents resulting in a critically low level of carers and other key workers

· the impact on traffic congestion, parking pressure and air pollution in the town centre.

· the social impact of fracturing neighbourhood support networks and increased social isolation. A good number of streets and blocks of flats now face a critically low level of permanent occupancy.

North Berwick Environment and Heritage Trust Chair, Olwyn Owen, shared her concerns in the report and recently met with representatives of East Lothian Council to discuss findings. “This report raises a number of issues - from the lack of affordable housing for local people, either to buy or rent, to problems caused by a procession of short term neighbours. Some residents feel isolated or unsafe, with few or no permanent neighbours occupying adjacent properties.

These same problems are already well-known in other beautiful places such as Wales, Cornwall and the Lake District, and are starting to impact other popular seaside towns such as Whitby and North Berwick.”

This report is based on recent detailed research carried out by Alison Clark, Trustee of NBEHT, over a three month period in mid 2022.