Short Term Lets Licensing Statistics Scotland to 31 December 2023

As Table 4 shows most licences in operation relate to secondary lettings (81%; type of let) and houses (62%; premises type), with the most common premises being a detached house. This is a very similar profile to applications validated.

Table 4: Licences in operation as of 31 December 2023, by type of premises and type of let

Tables H and I in the supporting Excel document show the number of licences in operation by each local authority, by type of premises and type of let. Like applications received and validated, the local authority breakdowns show some variations in the proportions of types of premises across different local authority areas, some of which may reflect different underlying profiles of total dwellings in each area.

Overall, at least, 31,896 bedrooms and a total maximum occupancy of 63,798 people were reported in the licences or exemptions in operation. There were some licences that did not provide this information (3% of licences missing information for bedrooms, 3 licences missing information for total occupancy).

Authorities with the highest average number of bedrooms per licence include Fife (3.9 bedrooms per licence), West Dunbartonshire (3.3), with the lowest including Edinburgh (1.8) and Inverclyde (1.9).

Authorities with the highest average maximum occupancy per licence include West Dunbartonshire (7.3 average maximum occupancy per licence) and Midlothian (6.5), with the lowest including Glasgow (3.5), and Edinburgh (3.7).

Accommodation information has been provided for 83% (10,354) of the 12,435 licences or exemptions in operation, equating to a total of 11,803 accommodation units. Excluding authorities with fewer than 10 total records with accommodation information, authorities with the highest average number of accommodation units per licence in operation include Clackmannanshire (1.6 units per licence) and South Lanarkshire (1.6).

Table J in the supporting excel file has accommodation information for each local authority.

8,345 (67%) of licences have EPC data associated with them. 41% of these have an EPC rating in the A-C range. Further EPC rating data can be found in the Scotland Summary table presented in the supporting tables