Edinburgh planning: Major housing and student accommodation development in New Town set to get go-ahead
A major city-centre development of housing and student accommodation has been recommended for approval by Edinburgh planners.
The "New Town Quarter" proposals for the former Royal Bank of Scotland site on Dundas Street in the New Town would see 315 new homes - including 108 classed as affordable - and 592 student bedspaces built on the site, along with commercial space and landscaping. Almost a third of the site would be retained as open space.
The developers described it as the biggest housing development in the city centre for more than a decade and said the purpose-built student accommodation - to be operated by student housing provider Fusion Students - would help free up some of the flats across the city currently occupied by 27,000 students.
The plans will be considered at a hearing by the council's development management sub-committee next Wednesday, December 17.
Ross McNulty, development director at Ediston Real Estate, said: "This is one of the last major brownfield sites in the city and we’re determined to make sure that the proposals do no less than make this high-quality neighbourhood one of the best places in Scotland to live in and visit.
"This is the largest housing development in the city centre for more than a decade and can help reverse the decline in housing delivery in recent years to deliver more homes, more quickly."
He said the proposals would deliver an inclusive, vibrant and thriving neighbourhood that strengthened the heart of the city.
The New Town and Broughton Community Council and Edinburgh World Heritage both said the proposed blocks were too high and bulky.
Others objected that the development would have a negative impact on the World Heritage Site, the design was "too modern for the area" and the height made it too imposing.
But the report by the council's head of planning David Givan recommends approval. It says: "There will be impacts associated with the character and setting of adjacent listed buildings."
But it concludes: "On balance, it is considered that the development does not remove or detract from key characteristic components of the conservation area that gives the area its special interest."
RBS relocated staff from Dundas Street to its headquarters in Gogarburn in 2017.
Initial plans put forward by RBS to demolish the buildings on the site to make way for up to 400 flats drew strong objections from people worried about the impact on local business and concerned over the scale of the new buildings.
RBS decided to abandon the plans and sold the site to Orion Capital Managers in 2019.
In 2021, the council granted permission for a development including residential, hotel, office, and other commercial uses.
But after Covid, the plans changed again. Homes intended as build-to-rent were dropped following a collapse of the market and replaced by the student accommodation while the offices were replaced by another 100 homes.
Demolition of the RBS offices has now been completed and construction works were launched in September by Housing Secretary Mairi McAllan.
Mr McNulty said: “We’re obviously delighted to get the support of the head of planning for these transformational proposals.
"It’s nearly ten years since the Royal Bank of Scotland initially proposed to develop the site, and we’re aiming to deliver something of which we, the community and the city can be proud.”