This is where Edinburgh ranks in the most popular places to search for rental property in Scotland

New data released by Rightmove shows which areas of Scotland have seen the biggest annual rise in the number of people searching for homes to rent, and Edinburgh is in the top three.

Edinburgh is the third most popular place to search for rental properties in Scotland, coming in just after Glasgow and Dunbar.

Edinburgh has been shown to be the third most popular place to search for rental properties in Scotland, coming in just after Glasgow and Dunbar.

The capital experienced a rise of 19 per cent between 2019 and 2020 in the number of people searching for houses to rent in the area.

Number one on the list, Dunbar in East Lothian, saw an annual increase of 32.6 per cent in searches for homes to rent.

Glasgow was second with a rise of 19.5 per cent of renters searching for properties in the area in the last year.

A rise in searches for properties up for sale was also evident during the pandemic.

Pitlochry in Perthshire has been revealed as the most popular place to house hunt, with an increase of 50.2 per cent in the number of people searching for homes to buy between 2019 and 2020.

Rebecca Butler, Branch Manager at J & H Mitchell and advertiser at Rightmove, said: “Pitlochry is a beautiful place to live with magnificent scenery and we’ve seen a massive rise in demand since the first lockdown was imposed last year.

“Every call I’ve taken and every email I’ve received since last spring is from people looking to move out of larger towns and cities across Scotland, and also from south of the border in England, looking for more land, more space, and a rural lifestyle.”

Rightmove identified East Linton in East Lothian as the second most popular place to search for houses on the market, with an increase of 40.1 per cent of people searching in this area.

Rightmove’s Director of Property Data, Tim Bannister, said: “The property market overcame many unexpected challenges in 2020, most notably with agents adapting and evolving the way they worked to ensure that people could still move home safely.

"Spending more time at home last year gave lots of people the impetus to reassess their housing needs, and coupled with the stamp duty holiday, many people had extra motivation to move home.”

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