This week sees us return to familiar ground both geographically and in terms of our topic as we take a look at an SBS Dateline episode set in and around Edinburgh, Scotland.

Five years ago, Jimmy was in Edinburgh and was interviewed for the Scottish edition of the Times newspaper (see above), warning the city that it faced a rental crisis if it didn’t curb Airbnb and other short term letting agencies that were moving into residential apartments.

Now, rental availability has plummeted and rents have soared, and an SBS crew has visited Scotland which is about to impose among the toughest restrictions in the world on hosts who use the holiday letting internet platform and its ilk.
 You can read about how the rest of the world is dealing with airbnb compared to Australia's "light touch" in this article in The Conversation.

Closer to home, we look at why real estate agents think the ban on rent bidding has backfired.  And we come up with a solution to end it once and for all.

That’s all in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap.

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Flat Chat is all about apartment living, especially in Australia.
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Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai.
Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.