NEW statistics on property ownership have been published – and show the US is the number one country for overseas investment in Scots real estate.
Led by President Donald Trump, a Scottish golf magnate, the US tops the chart for proprietors with addresses outwith the UK, according to information released by the Registers of Scotland (RoS).
The official statistics are based on land and and property titles as listed on the land register at the end of December, where the legal owner or long-term commercial tenant had provided an address.
Most titles owned or leased from overseas were taken by individuals, and the data does not show whether or not they acted out of intention to immigrate here, operate a holiday home, or simply make an investment.
However, the findings reveal that almost 104,300 properties – 6% of the country’s total – were linked to proprietors that were based outside of Scotland.
Of these, most – 74,600 – were connected to England. Some 3700 were linked to Northern Ireland with another 1800 connected to Wales.
Meanwhile, 24,100 properties had one or more registered owners based overseas.
That number represents just 1.4% of the overall total and further analysis shows that US proprietors were the largest group.
According to RoS, there were 2300 US-linked properties, far more than the 1600 connected to second-place Hong Kong, which was narrowly ahead of the United Arab Emirates and Australia.
Ireland was in fifth place at 1400 properties, followed by Jersey, Singapore, the Isle of Man, France and Canada, which rounds off the top 10.
RoS said: “Registered buyers and tenants had addresses from 164 countries around the world, excluding the UK.
“More companies purchasing or leasing in Scotland came from Isle of Man than anywhere else, while USA was the most common country for individuals.
“More than half – 61.9% – of all titles owned or leased by companies from outwith the UK were accounted for by four Crown dependencies and overseas territories: Isle of Man, Jersey, British Virgin Islands and Guernsey.”
When broken into local areas, Edinburgh and Glasgow were the most popular areas of Scotland for purchasers and tenants from abroad.
Renfrewshire, home to international business and travel hub Glasgow Airport, was the third-most popular area, equating to around 12% of outwith UK title holdings.
RoS confirmed it is “likely that some of these holdings may relate to very small parcels of land such as parking spaces and storage facilities” near to that site.
The next most popular areas were revealed to be Fife, Aberdeen and the Highlands. However, proprietor addresses were not supplied for every title, RoS confirmed.
The government department said the two “most significant” reasons for this to be the case are a public body is behind the ownership or tenancy and does not require a designation address, and when the details given do not include an entry in any of the town/county/country fields to enable the identification of a geographic location.
While Trump’s business interests own two golf courses in Scotland – Trump International Golf Links in Aberdeenshire and Trump Turnberry in South Ayrshire – The National told last month of how Welsh sports firm Darwin Escapes had acquired Dundonald Links in North Ayrshire.
That course, which has hosted the Scottish Open, is considered to be among the 100 best in the world.
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