Country of Origin Report 2024

Published: 26 March 2025

Documents

Country of Origin Report 2024 - (8.5 MB)
Data Tables Country of Origin Report 2024 - (100.4 KB)

Main findings

Table of contents

1. Introduction

Below are the main findings of the Country of Origin Report 2024. 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 2024 without comparison with previous years.

A title is the statutory record of ownership or tenancy of a plot of land comprising the property, proprietorship, securities and burdens.

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:

Table listing locations of owners and total 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

A reference to “outwith UK” means those titles where the owner’s address supplied at the time of registration was not located in the UK.

There were 28,351 registered titles with an owner address outwith the UK.

4.1 Type of Owner:

  • Individuals accounted for 85.2% of titles
  • Limited companies accounted for 10.7%
  • Trustees and limited partnerships accounted for 2.8%
  • 1.3% 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 92.9%
  • The remainder of these titles were leased (long-term commercial leases), accounting for 7.0%

Number of titles with owner address outwith UK by interest, type of owner and proportion of split as at 31 December 2024.

Table highlighting property owner types in the country of origin report for 2024

4.3 Land use classification:

  • 80.2% residential
  • 12.5% other
  • 4.7% commercial
  • 0.6% land
  • 0.4% agriculture
  • 1.6% 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.

Table of 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 (3,616 titles)
  2. Hong Kong (2,441 titles)
  3. Australia (1,956 titles)

4.6 Land area of titles

Overall, outwith UK titles represented 3.8% 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

A reference to “UK ownership outwith Scotland” means those titles where the owner address supplied at time of registration is in England, Wales or Northern Ireland.

There were 110,470 registered titles with an owner address outwith Scotland.

5.1 Type of owner:

  • Individuals accounted for 66.5%
  • Limited companies accounted for 29.1%
  • Other accounted for 4.4% (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

Regional distribution of UK owner addresses outwith Scotland as at 31 December 2024.

A map showing the most common regions with UK owner address outwith Scotland

5.3 Location of the titles:

  • 21% are located in City of Edinburgh or Glasgow City
  • 67% in urban areas of Scotland and 33% in rural areas of Scotland

5.4 Land area of titles:

Overall, UK owner address outwith Scotland titles represented 15% of Scotland’s land area.

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

6. Owner address in Scotland

A reference to “owner address in Scotland” means those titles where the owner address supplied at time of registration is in Scotland.

There were 1,836,822 registered titles with an owner address in Scotland.

6.1 Type of owner:

  • Individuals accounted for 90.4%
  • Limited companies accounted for 5.8%
  • 3.7% 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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