Letting agencies are charging up to £7,000 a night for rentals in Edinburgh next August after Oasis announced three concerts at Murrayfield stadium during the annual festival period.
Nearly all the city’s hotel rooms have been reportedly booked up for the three Oasis concert dates, with the last rooms on offer for more than £545 a night for a couple.
While reasonably priced small flats and rooms are still on offer on the outskirts of the city, prices in the centre start at £420 a night in a shared dormitory, or up to £2,639 in a suite at the W Edinburgh hotel.
The few remaining rooms in serviced flats are on offer for more than £1,000 a night. The travel website Booking.com said on Monday that 94% of its rooms were not available for the Oasis concert nights.
Housing activists and political leaders in Edinburgh are furious that Live Nation, the promoter of the band’s sold-out reunion tour, chose August for the concerts when the city’s hotels and Airbnbs are already stretched because of the festival fringe.
Edinburgh has faced a significant housing crisis due to the surge in investors and private landlords buying up city centre properties to use as tourism lets.
The luxury apartment provider Joivy is charging as much as £178,000 for two adults to stay in an “ultra luxe” three-bedroom house for 25 nights in August, which comes to £7,120 a night, or £125,000 for a three-bed flat near Leith Walk.
The surge in housing costs has also priced out fringe performers, theatre crew and event staff – who often need to stay in the city for the whole of August – forcing the festival fringe to offer them student halls miles outside the city centre this year.
Eilidh Keay, chair of the tenants right group Living Rent Edinburgh, called the rental price “disgusting”. It was essential, she said, that short-term letting loopholes, which allow homeowners to temporarily rent out their properties, were closed.
“The ludicrous sums of money that landlords are able to make at the fringe and other cultural events, combined with far too permissive short-term let legislation incentivises them to keep properties empty until they are able to cash in,” she said.
Christine Jardine, the MP for Edinburgh West, said Live Nation appeared to have given “little thought to the knock-on effects” of the scheduling. “These shows will push the costs of performing at the Edinburgh festival even further out of reach for those on the margins,” she added.
Live Nation has been approached for comment. It has already faced widespread criticism for using surge pricing during the sale of Oasis tickets, triggering a review by UK ministers.
Cammy Day, the leader of Edinburgh council, said the timing of the Oasis concerts “highlights the ever greater need” for a visitor levy, which would allow the city to invest in new affordable housing and cleaner streets.
Edinburgh is poised to become the first city in the UK to implement a mandatory tourist tax, likely to be a 5% surcharge a night, but it will not be in force until July 2026. The council estimates it would have raised £620,000 from concertgoers staying overnight for Taylor Swift’s three concerts at Murrayfield in July.
The festival fringe expects an increase in artists needing its help next August.
A spokesperson said affordability and availability was “already challenging”, adding: “Our ask is that those coming to Edinburgh next year for Oasis support the 2025 fringe and the artists who take the risk to be part of it, by seeing shows while they are visiting.”