Concerns over spiralling rents have dominated the lead-up to this year’s Edinburgh festival fringe, with performers saying the event risks becoming unsustainable and increasingly elitist unless there is a fundamental change to its model.

Ticket sales for this year’s edition have increased for the sixth year running and there will be more international performers than ever before, but changes to rental rules in Scotland and an increasing lack of affordable accommodation are threatening to turn the fringe into “a glorified industry showcase”, according to artists.

Daisy Hale, the producer of Fatty Fat Fat by Katie Greenall at the Pleasance theatre, says performers have felt a noticeable increase in costs. “When I came five years ago I managed to get two flats for £3,000 and this year the one I’m in now costs more than that,” she said. “Everyone wants the fringe to continue but it needs to be sustainable.

“I can’t imagine coming as a punter, I wouldn’t be able to afford it. There’s no way I could pay to be here for two weeks – live in a flat, eat, and buy tickets to see shows – it’d be impossible. If you push out your average punter, then all it is is a glorified industry showcase.”

This year there has been a 5% rise in Edinburgh rents, and prices go up sharply during the month-long festival, which brings an estimated £300m to the Scottish economy. Some of that increase has been attributed to the introduction of the private residential tenancy (PRT) in Scotland, which replaced short assured tenancy in December 2017. Traditionally, student lets would be over a fixed term, which would allow landlords to rent out properties during the festival. With PRT, landlords cannot ask a tenant to leave without a reason.

Louise Dickins, the managing director of Edinburgh lettings agency Dickins, said landlords would traditionally write to student tenants in January to ask whether they intended to remain in the property or leave in May after their exams, allowing them to plan for a potential festival let. But PRT rules mean tenants only need to give a month’s notice, with many students confirming they are leaving only at the beginning of May.

She said an unintended consequence of PRT was that it had taken hundreds of properties off the market during August, which has in turn pushed prices up further. “The impact has been major,” she said. “It’s about the fact leases don’t have end dates. They always have in the student market and homes which happen to be in great areas for the festival, such as Old Town. People would do leases that coincided with being able to provide a festival let. Now they can’t do that, they can’t plan.”

Edinburgh’s Old Town has traditionally been a popular spot for lettings during the festival. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

Shona McCarthy, the chief executive of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival Society, said the event was doing what it could to provide alternative accommodation for performers and workers, with about 400 cheaper rooms made available at Queen Margaret and Napier University halls, a 20-minute bus ride from the city centre.

“The single biggest issue has been finding accommodation and cost of accommodation in Edinburgh,” said McCarthy, who added that the fringe has a three-pronged approach to lowering costs for performers. There is the partnership with universities, another one with the Theatre Digs Booker website – which pairs residents who want to house performers – and locating cheaper accommodation for artists outside the city centre.

McCarthy said everything “needs to settle” when it comes to PRT. “It’s very new this year, people don’t know how to work around it,” she said. “But it’s a good thing. It’s about protecting tenants and ensuring that they don’t get thrown out to cater for the festival.

“We’re always trying to strike that balance between doing what is right by local people who live here year-round but also trying to provide affordable provision for the amazing creative people who arrive here for that one month.”

This year Dickens said she had noticed a dramatic upturn in artists struggling to find somewhere to stay in August. “We were taking so many calls from people in a state of panic because they had nowhere to stay,” she said. “In the old days things would come online at the end and it would be fine, but this year that isn’t going to happen.”

Hale added: “I think PRT is a good thing because it protects residents, but I think landlords have preyed on artists’ panic a little bit. I’m happy that Edinburgh residents are being protected but there doesn’t seem to be protection for artists.”

Performers have been vocal about the huge debts that can be accrued as a result of a month-long stint at the fringe. The comedian Barry Ferns wrote about how he was left £35,000 in debt after 2018’s festival and Hale said that despite fundraising since January, breaking even is a best-case scenario. “We’ve been fundraising for our show since January and we’ll be lucky if we break even. I know that other people have taken out payday loans or just not bothered to come because they can’t afford it.”

Hale believes one of the impacts of rising costs for performers is that the festival becomes less diverse. “It means that you have fewer artists of colour, working-class artists and disabled artists – they’re already so poorly represented and are now being regularly priced out.”

Anthony Alderson, the director of the Pleasance theatre, said the festival had always been a loss leader for artists but the career benefits meant it was still worth the financial risk. “It is an expensive exercise,” he said. “But it’s a lot cheaper than putting something on in London. I still think Edinburgh is one of the affordable places to do it.”

Alderson said: “You can transform your career here,” pointing to the success of Flesh and Bone, a play by Elliot Warren set in an east London tower block that was performed at Edinburgh and went on to win an Olivier award. “They did that in two years. There is not another festival on the planet that can turn someone’s career around like that.”