COUNCIL chiefs want to buy homes on the open market in a bid to tackle the Capital's shortage of rented accommodation.
And the initiative could have the added benefit of boosting the housing market.
City housing convener Paul Edie said the credit crunch was piling even more pressure on Edinburgh's social rented sector, which is already struggling to meet demand.
And he said buying existing houses which are up for sale would allow the council to provide accommodation more quickly than acquiring land to build new homes.
"If we could get the cash I would be interested in looking at that solution," he said.
And the idea was welcomed today by property experts who said council interest in acquiring homes could stimulate demand.
Councillor Edie said one in five of the 23,000 households with council houses in Edinburgh were living in overcrowded accommodation. And he said the current economic situation meant more people were looking for affordable rented housing.
He said: "If people can't get a house to buy then they have to find one somewhere else, either from the private sector – which is why rents have gone up 20 per cent in the past year – or from the social rented sector."
He said Communities Minister Stewart Maxwell had been "cool" about the idea of the council buying second-hand homes when it was put to him at a meeting with a cross-party delegation earlier this year. "The Government seemed worried it could skew the market."
But he hoped there might be a change of heart.
David Marshall, business analyst with the Edinburgh Solicitors Property Centre, said there could be questions about whether bidding on the open market was the best use of taxpayers' money.
But he said: "The theory behind it is perfectly sound and it would have the double effect of increasing the supply in the social rented sector and also stimulating activity in the residential sales market."
He said any council purchases would have to be on a "very large scale indeed" before they could be seen as skewing the market.
Leading city estate agent Leslie Deans also backed the idea.
He said: "Everybody needs a roof over the head, the council has a legal obligation to house people that need it and it's difficult to start building lots of new properties from scratch.
"If councils can fulfil their obligations by doing it this way, it makes a lot of sense.
"The market has undoubtedly been a little bit flat in the past few weeks.
"It certainly would do the market no harm if the council were looking to acquire property."
The full article contains 448 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
