The Country of origin report 2024 shows where land and property owners and tenants were based at the time of purchase, including locations within Scotland, the rest of the UK, and beyond.

Of the 28,351 titles in Scotland for which the owner had an address outwith the UK (this category includes both UK overseas territories and Crown Dependencies):

• 85.2% were individuals, 10.7% were companies, 2.8% were trustees or limited partnerships and 1.3% had a combination of owner types
• Owners had addresses from 166 countries and overseas territories around the world, excluding the UK. Top 3 locations: 12.8% United States of America; 8.6% Hong Kong; and 6.9% Australia
• More companies purchasing or leasing in Scotland were based in Jersey than anywhere else, while USA was the most common country for individuals
• Half (52%) of all titles owned or leased by companies from outwith the UK were accounted for by three Crown dependencies and overseas territories: Jersey, Isle of Man and Guernsey
• Ownership was the predominant interest for titles with an outwith UK owner address, accounting for 92.9 % of titles (26,348 titles). The remaining 7.0% (1,990 titles), related to tenancy under long-term commercial leases
• City of Edinburgh and Glasgow City were the most popular areas of Scotland for titles with an owner address outwith the UK, with 18.6% (5,277 titles) and 13.5% (3,832 titles) of outwith UK titles respectively
• Renfrewshire was the third most popular area, with around 5.7% (2,294 titles) of outwith UK titles. A contributory factor to this is the number of titles of parking spaces and storage facilities near to Glasgow Airport. This is not repeated in any other local authority
• The majority (80%) of titles in Scotland with an owner address outwith the UK were classed as being in urban areas of Scotland
• Outwith UK titles represented 3.8% of Scotland’s land area.

A Registers of Scotland spokesperson said: “The annual Country of Origin report is one of the ways in which Registers of Scotland data brings fresh insight to who owns Scotland.

“It shows where land and property owners and tenants were based at the time of purchase, including locations within Scotland, the rest of the UK, and beyond.”