It's a bit of an astonishing window into real estate finance that the largest return on investment for a site at the edge of the New Town is huge amounts of PBSA rather than residential owner occupation - ThreadSky

urbaneprofessor.bsky.social • 1 day ago

It's a bit of an astonishing window into real estate finance that the largest return on investment for a site at the edge of the New Town is huge amounts of PBSA rather than residential owner occupation

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NEW TOWN QUARTER.—599 purpose-built student accommodation units proposed. Summary, links, reactions here: broughtonspurtle.org.uk/news/599-stu...
#Edinburgh #news #planning #NewTown

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urbaneprofessor.bsky.social•1 day ago

In other Edinburgh development news, the "save the Western Harbour ponds" (a development site stalled since 2008) really is peak NIMBYism. It didn't even exist until the harbour was filled-in for development

https://bsky.app/profile/edinburghminute.bsky.social/post/3lrctjicqnk2n

edinburghminute.bsky.social•1 day ago

Yeah. But now it’s home to wildlife that know nothing about this? Can swans and cygnets be NIMBYs? Or maybe they’re NIMBPs (pond).

urbaneprofessor.bsky.social•1 day ago

it's not a particularly special environment and you can probably deliver more biodiversity and ecological benefit in the park that is proposed for the east of the overall site

edinburghminute.bsky.social•1 day ago

For sure! A lot of mistrust out there in developers actually delivering on landscaping these days too. Wildlife never comes first. (Just being devil’s/animal’s advocate!)

urbaneprofessor.bsky.social•1 day ago

Fair enough! And by quoting you, I was definitely not suggesting you were one of the NIMBYs either!

edinburghminute.bsky.social•1 day ago

Haha nah all good, not taken that way. I’m just the messenger (m’lord).

jameschalmers.bsky.social•1 day ago

Discovered after I moved to Edinburgh that the block I’d moved into had been the subject of a “stop the development - save our local park!” campaign. The “park” did not exist until the developer had tidied up the derelict site to build on it. It was also next to an actual park.

urbaneprofessor.bsky.social•1 day ago

it's a real problem when development becomes stalled, as the sites often have long-standing planning permission, but people get used to living next to a green space

jameschalmers.bsky.social•1 day ago

A group of locals tried to get round this by applying for planning permission to use the site as a park. Council: “sure but you know permission is useless unless you own the site, right?” NIMBY Collective: “yes but now the developer has tidied it up they should see it’s a great park and gift us it”.

jameschalmers.bsky.social•1 day ago

(I knew someone who had worked nearby and was astonished I was moving there as she remembered the site as being absolutely horrible. I suspect even the most hardcore NIMBY would not have elected what was there over the development, but as you say the intermediate stage was attractive.)

aidan.skinner.me.uk•1 day ago

The Kelvin Meadow is a great example of this. Is it a much loved children's paradise or is it some scrub that could stand a couple of tenemants going up on it?

'scuse me, Gruffalos at the door

annadent.bsky.social•1 day ago

Hundreds of new flats being built near us. So far all or majority student places. Does nothing to help the housing crisis in Bristol 😣

urbaneprofessor.bsky.social•1 day ago

The housing crisis is even more complex in Bristol, from what I know. I understand the surrounding local authorities have stopped most housing development happening for 50 years

jamesdaustin.bsky.social•1 day ago

One of our real challenges is that the local authorities don't really recognise their interdependence with Bristol - and view it as a Bristol problem.

See BANES plan which presently can broadly be summarised as 'stick it all on the border and let Bristol deal with it'

alanpx.bsky.social•1 day ago

That’s an interesting parallel, as there is huge development of car-centric estates in the authorities bordering Edinburgh; they’re building new sewer roads to dump traffic onto the city.

urbaneprofessor.bsky.social•1 day ago

Yup. Edinburgh really should have gone for the development fingers/green wedges approach with more development along developing public transport corridors

alanpx.bsky.social•1 day ago

It’s all Thatcher’s fault; abolishing the regions set West/Mid/East Lothian against the city exactly so this couldn’t happen.

jamesdaustin.bsky.social•1 day ago

Not really true: so you think students just disappear if we don't build student accommodation? Who do you think is driving the rise in HMOs and outbidding everyone?

ianrobo.bsky.social•1 day ago

well should see what is happening here in birmingham so many of these because we are very short of places. Thing is students move into this purpose built ones, guess what, it releases the stock where students live in residential areas.

threadinburgh.scot•1 day ago

Well their neighbours are quite literally the largest residential army of lawyers in Scotland, so it will be interesting to see how the consultation and application for this goes down

halfbrickmccurdy.bsky.social•1 day ago

Am guessing it's the revenue stream that's the thing, that and the scope to "add value"/bump up rentals by adding services/facilities.

urbaneprofessor.bsky.social•1 day ago

I've got a pal who researches the market and I'm going to ask her!

halfbrickmccurdy.bsky.social•1 day ago

Sweet. I remember student accommodation was viewed as an escape route during the credit crunch (flats/hotels/offices being built no one could borrow to buy were converted), would be interesting to read what's subsequently happened.

threadinburgh.scot•1 day ago

Those of us with very long memories of the PBSA story in Edinburgh appreciate the irony that the council took a presumptive approach to approvals for them (about 15 years ago) explicitly with goal of improving housing supply in the city centre by getting students out of flats and HMOs and into PBSA

srd.bsky.social•1 day ago

Which did work!

threadinburgh.scot•1 day ago

To a point - it might have really worked if the Unis had let the cat out of the bag that they were planning on massively growing the student rolls in paralell with this so that the new construction only really touched the sides of that growth over time.

instography.bsky.social•1 day ago

Could you get density like that from owner-occupation?

urbaneprofessor.bsky.social•1 day ago

no, and you'd also be required to deliver an affordable housing contribution

alanpx.bsky.social•1 day ago

Presumably PBSA will crash eventually. Who gets wiped out by that ?

urbaneprofessor.bsky.social•1 day ago

I think that's less of a risk in Edinburgh, in the short-term at least, than in other towns and cities

alanpx.bsky.social•1 day ago

Though Edinburgh is not immune. Maybe they can more easily convert to AirBnB when all the foreign students have been deterred, deported or banned.

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