Scottish Estate Market Review | Spring 2017

The Scottish estate market was more active in 2016 than any other year this Century to date.

With a political backdrop of the EU ‘Brexit’ vote, the Scottish Government’s unfolding Land Reform Agenda and speculation about a second independence referendum, the robustness of this market may come as a surprise to many. It certainly gives rise to the obvious questions as to who were the sellers and buyers and why were they selling/buying.

Read the full Scottish Estate Market Review Spring 2017

On the selling side, the reasons estate owners choose to sell their estate (aside from the ‘three Ds’ of death, debt and divorce!) is often because of a lack of a successor within their family who is keen, willing and able to continue their parents’ ownership of an estate – this applies whether the estate has been in a family’s ownership for one generation or many – and is the primary reason that many of the estates sold in 2016 were offered for sale. Continued overleaf.

Supply

• 36 estates were offered for sale, of which 25 found buyers by the year end.
• The combined total acreage of estates offered for sale was 182,000 acres. The average size of estate sold was 4,994 acres.
• 5 estates of more than 10,000 acres were sold – more than usual.

Demand

• Demand has remained firm with just under 70% of estates for sale finding buyers – a five-year high.
• The majority of buyers were British, with a higher proportion of Scottish buyers than in recent years.
• A quarter of the buyers were from overseas.

Pricing

• Just under £100m was spent on buying estates in 2016, again a five-year high and the highest annual spend on record.
• 15 of the 25 estates sold in 2016 were sold at or above their asking price (60%).
• The average price of the estates sold was £4m.