WELL-HEELED professionals who are “too posh to queue” are paying students up to £300 a day to camp out on the street for them to secure the best new flats and houses on the market.

Businessmen with more money than time are advertising on student noticeboards in Scotland for queue-sitters to wait on their behalf outside the offices of property developers during sales of new residential developments in the most desirable areas.

With the price of second-hand properties in Scotland rising by up to 50 per cent a year in some hot spots — fuelled by the “offers over” bidding system of house sales north of the border — buyers are increasingly opting for the certainty of a fixed-price, new-build home, sold strictly to the early birds.

However, in the past year demand for new homes has outstripped supply which means eager buyers have no option but to queue, sometimes for days, to secure their ideal home with a deposit.

Louise Pender, 21, a fourth-year English literature student at Edinburgh University, jumped at the chance to queue-sit for a businessman after she saw his advert on a student notice board.

She was paid £200 for a 24-hour stint outside Rettie & Co property management company in the city which allowed her to pay off her overdraft. Normally it would have taken her months to save up from her £120-a-month Saturday job as a swimming instructor.

“It was easy money, but I didn’t tell my parents because I thought they might think it was dangerous,” she said. “There were about a dozen in the queue and my friend joined me overnight. It was great.

“During the day I read a book on my course reading list and then at night I stayed up chatting.

“We didn’t really get any sleep, even though I took a carry-mat and a sleeping bag. I would do it again, although it was quite cold. Next time I would take more things to sit on because the ground got cold.”

Maria Ponte, associate director for Rettie & Co, Edinburgh, said the phenomenon of queue-sitting had emerged in the past year. She said she spoke to three students in February who had been paid to queue on behalf of house buyers eager to snap up flats in the prestigious Tron development, off Old Fishmarket Close. People queued for three days and the 24 flats, ranging from £135,000 to £365,000, sold in 90 minutes.

“We are not the only ones who have experienced student queue-sitters and it doesn’t seem to cause any animosity among the other buyers,” Ms Ponte said. “Some people get a bunch of friends together and do it in shifts, because you cannot leave the queue or you lose your place. The buyers make the rules, not us.”

Craig Hall, marketing manager for the developer, Applecross, in Edinburgh, said that students were being employed as queue-sitters by wealthy professionals, businessmen and even solicitors acting for overseas buyers who were unable to queue themselves.

Applecross is expecting queues for two residential developments due to be launched in July at Eyre Place, in Edinburgh’s New Town and at Woodhall Mill, on the city outskirts.

Will Garten, president of the Students’ Association at Edinburgh University, said: “Students are doing anything they can to get their hands on extra money to keep going during term time, never mind paying off debts. Queuing to help rich people buy their expensive flats is a new one on me.”

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