Head of Residential Letting
Edinburgh
Salary Guide: £42,000 to £45,000
An exciting Opportunity to be part of this extremely forward thinking, proactive Property Company.
Ideally the successful applicant will have the following:
- Minimum 5 years of residential letting experience, with at least 2 years in a senior or management role
- Strong knowledge of the Edinburgh property market and Scottish housing legislation
- Proven track record in team leadership and delivering business growth
- Exceptional communication, negotiation, and customer service skills
- ARLA qualification or equivalent (desirable)
- Proficiency in CRM/lettings software (e.g., SME Professional, IRE, Inventory Base).
- Full clean driving licence
The Head of Letting will lead and develop the residential letting department. You’ll be responsible for overseeing all aspects of the property management team through the ‘lettings lifecycle’, helping to drive business growth, maintaining the portfolio’s compliance with Scottish legislation and ensuring high levels of customer satisfaction. You’ll be an experienced leader with a deep understanding of the Edinburgh property market and a proven ability to manage and motivate teams.
This is a key role within the company and the candidate’s ability to make it a success will be pivotal in helping the firm achieve its future goals. The role will sit within the wider management team and they’ll have real autonomy as to how they want to run their department whilst also having substantial impact on how the business is run and should develop moving forwards.
Key Responsibilities:
Leadership & Team Management
- Lead, mentor, and manage a team of 10 letting professionals including property managers, viewing agents and additional administrative staff
- Conduct regular 1-to-1s, team meetings, and performance reviews
- Implement a structure of KPIs for the Property Managers and introduce formal accountability for these roles/ team members
- Identify training needs and foster a culture of continuous improvement
- Responsible for recruitment within the Letting team & ancillary roles
- Responsible for all training requirements of the Letting Team; courses identified as required, booked and arranged with cover in the diary for the team
- Set up and implement initial onboarding and training of new staff members within your team
Operational Oversight
- Oversee the end-to-end letting process: from property marketing and viewings to tenancy management, inspections and renewals
- Ensure adherence to all relevant Scottish legislation including PRS regulations, tenancy deposit schemes, and health & safety standards
- Develop and refine operational procedures to improve efficiency and service delivery
- Manage the allocation of new properties onboarded with us to ensure a balance to each individual Property Manager’s portfolio
- Regular audit of the overall portfolio performance – Time to Let, maintenance response times, paperwork accuracy (leases, referencing etc,), email communication – speed and quality of output
- HR manager – log all holidays & allowances, register lateness, illness etc and keep efficient records
- Compliance on all tradespeople – insurances etc
Business Development & Strategic Growth of Portfolio
- Analyse market trends and competitor activity to inform strategic decisions
- Drive performance through KPIs, reporting regularly to the senior leadership team
- Responsible for rent review process – both timing of reviews and accuracy of proposals to landlords; this is done 1-on-1 with the Property Managers
- Implement system for recommending & executing larger refurbishments at turnaround of tenancies
Client Relationship Management
- Build and maintain strong relationships with landlords, tenants, and contractors
- Handle escalated client issues with professionalism and resolution-focused strategies
- Champion a service-led, client-centric approach across the team
- Respond to all reviews on Google on behalf of the Lettings team
- Handle all FTT cases through to completion
- Owner statement queries
- Rent arrears – auditing, tracking and following up
Compliance & Risk Management
- Ensure all properties are compliant with EPC, PAT, Gas Safety, EICR, Legionella, Lead and other legal obligations
- Maintain accurate records and documentation in line with GDPR and ARLA Propertymark (or similar) standards
- Stay updated on changing legislation and implement proactive adjustments to operations.
Compliance & Risk Management
- Ensure all activities comply with relevant legal, industry, and regulatory requirements (e.g., ARLA, SAL, RICS, HMRC, lettings legislation)
- Maintain internal audit processes and mitigate operational risk
Key Skills & Experience Required:
- Minimum 5 years of residential letting experience, with at least 2 years in a senior or management role
- Strong knowledge of the Edinburgh property market and Scottish housing legislation
- Proven track record in team leadership and delivering business growth
- Exceptional communication, negotiation, and customer service skills
- ARLA qualification or equivalent (desirable)
- Proficiency in CRM/lettings software (e.g., SME Professional, IRE, Inventory Base).
- Full clean driving licence
Package:
- Salary: Competitive base (depending on experience)
- Benefits:
- Company pension
- Professional development budget –TBC with successful applicant
- 28 days holiday + 4 bank holidays
- Time-served bonuses
- Time-served holiday allowance increases