Country of Origin Report 2023

Documents

Main findings

1. Introduction

Below are the main findings of the Country of Origin Report 2023. This analysis covers land and property titles in Scotland by location of owner at time of purchase.

2. Things you need to know

These statistics present data on the location of owners at the time of purchase based on the owner address supplied at the time of registration with Registers of Scotland (RoS). They are presented as a snapshot as at 31 December 2023 without comparison with previous years.

To be included in these statistics the title needs to be (i) registered in the Land Register and (ii) the registered legal owner has provided an address at the time of registration that is able to be classified to a geographic location.

For more information, please see the full report, section Things you need to know about this release. 

3. Location of owner

For the 1.9 million registered titles in the Land Register:

More information on this section is available in chapter 3 of the full report.

4. Owner addresses outwith UK

There were 27,724 registered titles with an owner address outwith the UK.

4.1 Type of Owner:

• Individuals accounted for 84.6% of titles
• Limited companies accounted for 10.9%
• Trustees and limited partnerships accounted for 2.8%
• 1.7% had a combination of owner types

4.2 Interest (ownership or tenancy):

• Ownership was the predominant interest for titles with an outwith UK owner address, accounting for 92.5%
• The remainder of these titles were leased (long-term commercial leases), accounting for 7.4%

Number of titles with owner address outwith UK by interest, type of owner and proportion of split as at 31 December 2023.

4.3 Land use classification:

• 78.8% residential
• 8.4% other
• 8.1% commercial
• 4.0% land
• 0.5% agriculture
• 0.3% forestry

4.4 Location of the titles:

• 32% in City of Edinburgh or Glasgow City
• 80% in urban areas of Scotland; 20% in rural areas of Scotland

Titles with an owner address outwith the UK by Local Authority.

4.5 Location of owner addresses by country:

The top three locations of owner addresses for outwith UK titles:

1. United States of America (3,392 titles)
2. Hong Kong (2,456 titles)
3. Australia (1,874 titles)

4.6 Land area of titles

Overall, outwith UK titles represented 3.5% of Scotland’s land area.

More information on this section is available in chapter 4 of the full report.

5. UK owner address outwith Scotland

There were 98,341 registered titles with an owner address outwith Scotland.

5.1 Type of owner:

• Individuals accounted for 66.8%
• Limited companies accounted for 28.5%
• Other accounted for 4.7% (which relates to non-commercial bodies, trusts or a mix of ownership types)

5.2 Location of owner address by UK region:

• 25% London
• 16% South East of England

Most common regions with UK owners address outwith Scotland as at 31 December 2023.

5.3 Location of the titles:

• 21% are located in City of Edinburgh or Glasgow City
• 66% in urban areas of Scotland and 34% in rural areas of Scotland

5.4 Land area of titles:

Overall, UK owner address outwith Scotland titles represented 14.2% of Scotland’s land area.

More information on this section is available in chapter 5 of the full report.

6. Owner address in Scotland

There were 1,806,127 registered titles with an owner address in Scotland.

6.1 Type of owner:

• Individuals accounted for 90%
• Limited companies accounted for 5.6%
• 4.4% accounted for other (which relates to non-commercial bodies, trusts or a mix of ownership types)

More information on this section is available in chapter 6 of the full report.

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