A Green MSP has raised concerns over "very audible sex parties" disturbing elderly residents in Edinburgh.

Andy Wightman, who represents the Lothian region, brought the matter to housing minister Kevin Stewart on Wednesday.

Wightman is concerned about the growth in short-term letting of properties in the Old Town and Grassmarket.

He told Holyrood: "Over the past few weeks, I have been speaking to constituents who live in the Old Town and the Grassmarket in Edinburgh.

"It is clear that there is a substantial problem with unregulated growth in short-term holiday lets. A substantial part of the residential population in those areas might disappear within the next decade.

"Very audible sex parties have taken place in the flat above one constituent, and an elderly couple are now living out the rest of their years lonely in a tenement stair that has lost all its other permanent residents.

"Others with young families live in a state of stress and anxiety due to the rent-seeking behaviour of a growing number of property owners."

Stewart said he does "sympathise" with the constituents but "the planning system cannot always readily distinguish between different types of housing tenure".

He added: "Where a householder proposes to change the use of an existing residential flat, the requirement for planning permission will depend on the circumstances of each individual case, and the matter will be for the planning authority concerned, in the first instance.

"Mr Wightman might want to engage in the current planning consultation and urge the residents to whom he has spoken to do so, too."