Plans for Inverness STR development opposed over housing concerns

UK: Plans to convert an Inverness office building into short-term rentals have found increasing opposition from residents and campaigners.

The proposal would create ten STRs, but has garnered 90 objections over concerns that 40 per cent of homes on the street could be given over to short-term lets.

Plans for the conversion of the 27 Ardconnel Terrace property has increasingly become a focal point of citywide debate. Submissions to the planning portal say development would reduce residential availability. 

Tenant’s rights campaigner Feargus Murray said he was evicted from his flat after the landlord chose to sell the property.

“You can’t buy flats or rent flats in the city centre anymore because it’s being taken up by this kind of accommodation,” Murray, a member of Living Rent Highlands, said. “It’s an incredibly frustrating situation — we can’t live in our own cities, we can’t live in our own towns.”

“It’s becoming a really, really difficult situation for a lot of people,” he said.

Murray said that the issue wasn’t limited to Inverness. Across the Highlands, he said that as STRs grow in popularity, residential properties supply is reduced and rents increase.

A short-term let control area was introduced in January, aiming to alleviate the issue, but some say legislation hasn’t gone far enough.

Living Rent Highlands has led opposition to the Ardconnel Terrace property. Another organisation member, Louis McIntosh, said the scheme indicates a broader trend in regulation.

“The Highland Council’s current strategy of allowing each individual area committee to declare a local control zone simply doesn’t do enough to future-proof against short-term let applications springing up across communities,” McIntosh said.

He continued: “As Highlanders we are proud of our world-famous hospitality, but propping up a tourism industry that commodifies our hometowns has come at the expense of wiping out the hopes of us ever being able to live where we work.

“We need the council to stand up to the tourism lobby and introduce a Highland-wide short term let control zone. This is the only way they can make a real effort to ensure that the people who work in the Highlands are able to live there and ensure that our homes are not investments for the rich and powerful.”

Highlights:

• Plans to convert an Inverness office building into ten short-term rentals have attracted 90 objections, with residents warning 40 per cent of homes on the street could be lost to STRs.
• Living Rent Highlands member Feargus Murray said he was evicted from his flat after the landlord sold the property, adding job candidates have been unable to accept positions in Inverness due to lack of housing.
• The tenant’s union argues Highland Council’s current strategy of allowing individual area committees to declare local control zones is insufficient to protect housing supply.
• The group is calling for a Highland-wide short-term let control zone to prevent homes from being commodified for tourism at the expense of residents.