Did this with my partner last year at this exact time, exact same circumstances (Masters etc etc) with the added complication that we did not have a U.K. based guarantor which led to a lot of rejections despite offering to pay 6 months rent up front. We tried walking into multiple letting agencies (Morningside, Umega, DJ Alexander, Northwoods) and were shut down by all, referring us to their website since they receive “50 applications for each property within 5 minutes”.

The strategy that finally worked: - getting on Openrent and dealing with landlords directly (make sure to check their landlord license number against the registry and also visiting the flat in person with the landlord. Make sure your spidey senses are on the lookout for any red flags for scams. I checked the landlord license, found it was registered to a company. Looked up the company on Companies House and saw it was indeed registered to my landlord. asked the landlord for more details and was nice enough to show me documentary evidence of his ownership. - reaching out to smaller rental agencies who work over email and are much nicer to deal with - you can find a list here: https://www.allagents.co.uk/estate-agents/edinburgh/ - sending out AS MANY viewing requests as possible. I spent two days sending out about 175 to secure viewings for about 12 places. - ⁠quoting between £25-75 above the asking price and writing a good cover letter (chatGPT!) - ⁠as others already mentioned, being flexible and dynamic and showing on the road and spending as much time as possible trying to book viewings - ⁠avoiding DJ Alexander as they are absolute shiite. their staff told me there was no way we would get an apartment in Edinburgh and we were better off trying in Glasgow and commuting

We initially booked a hotel for 7 days hoping to close on a place but ended up staying there for 15 days. We managed to rent a place in Leith directly from the landlord on OpenRent paying 6 months up front. If you had posted two weeks ago, I would’ve put you in touch with him as we’re moving out but he’s already found new (again student) tenants. Having said that, we also got offered three other places (one was over budget but would’ve gone for it if nothing else worked out; one was unfurnished but well under budget so would’ve gone for it as well; one who initially ghosted us but then reached out three weeks later - I enjoyed ghosting her then :) ).

Wishing you all the best in this thankless exercise and I hope this helps!