Kirknewton (EH29) Leads Edinburgh Yields at 9.6%

Yields across 115 Edinburgh postcode areas range from 9.6% in Kirknewton (EH29) at the top, down through premium central postcodes that sit roughly 1.5 percentage points lower. That 1.5pp spread across postcodes is wider than the typical holiday-let-versus-buy-to-let gap once Edinburgh's licensing constraints are accounted for, which means where you buy in Edinburgh tends to matter more than how you let it out. This ranking shows which postcodes lead on gross yield, why the pattern exists, and what the table cannot show on its own.

Kirknewton (EH29) Leads the Top Five at 9.6%

Gross yields = annual income / sale price. Based on 3-bed house medians. The dashboard shows every property type and bedroom count.

Outer Edinburgh Postcodes Win Because Rent Holds Up Faster Than Price Falls

The top three Edinburgh postcodes share one feature: they sit at the city's edge, where land is cheaper but rental demand still anchors to Edinburgh's labour market. Kirknewton (EH29) is a village west of the city, well within commuter range of the centre. Its entry price of £200,768 sits well below Edinburgh's median 3-bed house price of £264,848, while monthly rent of £1,612 barely lags the city average. That asymmetric drop in price relative to rent is the entire reason the yield reaches 9.6%. As a holiday let proposition the postcode is more constrained: tourist demand concentrates in central Edinburgh, so the headline yield here is best read as a strong buy-to-let signal first, with seasonal short-let upside as a secondary case.

South Queensferry (EH30) carries the same yield logic with a different geography. The Forth-side town has steady family-tenant demand thanks to schools, train links into Waverley and Haymarket, and the bridges. Housing stock skews to terraced and semi-detached properties priced around £202,086, while rents of roughly £1,617 reflect commuter-grade convenience rather than scarcity. Newbridge/Ratho (EH28) sits closer to the airport and motorway corridor and attracts tenants tied to logistics, hospitality, and aviation employers. Its 9.5% yield reflects steady year-round tenant demand rather than capital scarcity, and any holiday let upside is heavily dependent on airport-adjacent traveller volumes.

Portobello/Joppa (EH15) is the outlier in the top five. Portobello sits on the coast and has gentrified significantly over the last decade, yet its 3-bed median of £237,134 still trails central postcodes. Its 8.9% buy-to-let yield is supported by professional tenant demand, and the holiday let upside is more durable here than in the other top suburbs because Portobello draws beach-side weekend visitors across the calendar, not just during festival season. Gilmerton/Moredun (EH17) closes out the top five with the classic outer-south-Edinburgh pattern: residential streets, family stock, and rents that hold close to the city median against a price tag well below it.

The Yield-Price Trade-off Is Sharper in Edinburgh Than in Most UK Cities

Edinburgh's yield ranking inverts the conventional assumption that the best addresses produce the best income. An investor entering at £200,768 in Kirknewton (EH29) versus the city median of £264,848 faces a very different capital-risk profile: less money on the line, and a yield that beats most premium central postcodes by a wide margin. The trade-off is that capital growth in outer postcodes typically lags the centre, where listed buildings, conservation status, and constrained supply continue to support price appreciation through cycles.

This pattern exists because Edinburgh rents do not fall in proportion as you move outward. Tenants commuting in from Newbridge/Ratho (EH28) or South Queensferry (EH30) pay close to city-centre rents because the labour market they serve is the same. Buyers in those postcodes, however, pay considerably less because the addresses lack the prestige and amenity premium of New Town, Stockbridge, or Morningside. The compounded effect produces the 9.6% top-of-ranking number you see, against a city-median yield of 8.1%.

View Edinburgh in the dashboard → Free preview · every bedroom count and property type

Premium Central Postcodes Trade Yield for Capital Growth and Liquidity

For context, here is how some of Edinburgh's most in-demand postcodes compare. These are established areas where investors typically accept lower running yields in exchange for capital growth, lower vacancy risk, and faster resale. They are also the postcodes that dominate buyer searches and agent listings, so they dominate Edinburgh investment discussion despite the lower running yield.

High-demand postcodes for context. Same methodology as the yield ranking above.

These postcodes sit lower on the gross yield ranking because buyers pay a premium for the location itself, not for the income it produces. In practice several of these central areas can produce stronger holiday-let returns than their buy-to-let yield suggests, because tourist demand concentrates in Edinburgh's centre, but those figures are conditional on a licence being granted (see warning below). The catch is that Edinburgh's licensing regime constrains how easily that strategy can be executed in practice (covered below).

What the Yield Ranking Doesn't Show

A high gross yield can mean depressed prices rather than strong rents. Kirknewton (EH29) ranks first partly because village-stock prices have not kept pace with central Edinburgh, not because tenant demand has surged. Capital growth across the city is concentrated in the central conservation areas, which means the total return picture (yield plus appreciation) often favours the premium postcodes despite their lower running yield. Yield rankings also do not capture vacancy risk: rural and edge-of-city postcodes sometimes have thinner rental pools, and a single bad tenant void can wipe out a year of the yield premium.

Two further caveats matter for Edinburgh specifically. First, the short-term let licensing regime introduced across Scotland in October 2022 applies to every holiday let in Edinburgh, and the city operates the strictest enforcement in the UK. New secondary letting (where the property is not your principal residence) may also need planning permission for change of use in designated control areas. The holiday let yield column assumes the property is legally licensed and operating; that assumption is not automatic in Edinburgh. Second, the abolition of the Furnished Holiday Lettings tax regime from April 2025 means the historic tax advantage of holiday letting versus buy-to-let no longer exists, which makes the gross yield gap between the two strategies the central question rather than an academic one.

Warning: holiday let figures apply only where a Scottish short-term let licence has been granted and any required change-of-use planning consent is in place. In Edinburgh both are non-trivial to obtain.

Edinburgh's Yield Sits Above the UK Median but Trails the Scottish Average

Edinburgh's city-wide buy-to-let yield of 8.1% sits 0.6pp below the Scottish median of 8.7%, and 2.4pp above the UK median of 5.7%. The top-ranked Edinburgh postcode at 9.6% comfortably beats both benchmarks. Premium central postcodes pull the city average down, so postcode selection matters: a buyer in Kirknewton (EH29) or South Queensferry (EH30) captures yields that compete with the highest-returning UK regional cities, while a buyer in central Edinburgh accepts a yield closer to the southern English commuter belt in exchange for the central premium.

For a comparison with another Scottish or UK market, see Glasgow Holiday Lets Net 14.5% After All Costs. Glasgow Apartments Beat Houses on Buy-to-Let Yield examines a related question for a different city and shows how the yield-price trade-off plays out where regulation is less restrictive than in Edinburgh.

For methodology, see market score methodology and data sources. Explore rental data in the dashboard for live per-postcode figures.

Data reflects market conditions as of May 2026.

This information is for educational purposes only and should not be considered financial or legal advice. Regulations and market conditions change frequently. Verify current rules with local authorities before making investment decisions.