The Land Commission of Scotland, a formal body set up for land ownership reform, has warned that these trends threaten efforts to diversify land ownership, improve the rural economy and increase transparency and accountability. A research commissioned by Scotland suggests that Scotland’s land market is in danger of overheating, with demand from companies, charities and wealthy individuals for Highland primary estates far outstripping supply. A study by Scotland’s Rural College and two major real estate agencies – Savills and Strutt & Parker – analyzed for the first time in Scotland land sales in the last two years concerning Highland sports estates, commercial forests and farms. He found that prices for sports estates increased by 88% in 2021 compared to 2020, although the number of properties sold was similar to the five-year average. Two were sold for more than εκατο 20 million. And despite the global pandemic, the amount spent last year increased by 119% compared to 2020. Nearly two-thirds of last year’s sales were made privately, with no land on the open market, with one-third going to overseas buyers. These “off-market” sales meant the land was secretly changing hands without allowing locals to bid, the commission warned. Hamish Trench, the commission’s chief executive, said these trends could make it “significantly more difficult” for local communities, cooperatives and social enterprises to buy land, stifling efforts to promote rural economic diversity. This has significantly increased the need to introduce new public interest tests into large land sales and rules to prevent private land sales excluding local communities, he added. “The way the land market works is crucial to Scotland’s ambitions, such as clean zero, restoration of nature, repopulation and community empowerment,” Trench said. “The opportunity to participate in the market shapes not only who owns Scottish land, but who is able to make decisions and who benefits from the land and its economic, social and environmental value.” Businesses and investors are now paying great prices for farmland, commercial forests and farms to offset carbon emissions and sell green investments as they try to meet the challenges posed by governments and scientists to tackle global warming. At the same time, the very rich are still buying Highland estates for lifestyle reasons, but now they are investing much more in forests, revitalizing and restoring peatlands instead of focusing on chasing deer, salmon and wild boar as before. A recent study by Community Land Scotland, which is campaigning for land reform, found that many forest projects are subsidized by government grants to promote reforestation and regeneration, also allowing homeowners to sell CO2-based carbon credits. absorb forests. This means that farm prices in Scotland rose by 31% last year, compared with 6% at the UK level, according to a report by the Land Committee. The value of poor quality pastures and hilly farms ideal for forestry increased by 60% last year. The commission’s findings will intensify pressure on the Scottish Government to introduce a public interest test and possibly limit the amount of land an individual or entity can own. As part of the Scottish National Party’s co-operation agreement with the Scottish Greens, he plans to introduce a new land reform bill by the end of 2023, but it remains unclear what the ministers intend to do. The government has also promised to double the ης 10 million-a-year Scottish Land Fund, which distributes community grants, to 20 20 million by 2026. This fund had already been largely oversupplied before the sudden rise in prices. of land last year and had to turn applicants away. In 2019, the commission found that approximately 1,125 homeowners, including public bodies and charities, owned 70% of Scotland’s rural land, covering a total of 4.1 million hectares (10 hectares). That includes 87 owners who own 1.7 million hectares, including some who own vast plots of land of more than 80,000 hectares on multiple properties. The Scottish Government has said it has acknowledged the agrarian reform case. The committee’s report advocated “the approach we take to ensure that investment in our natural capital is carried out responsibly, in line with our agrarian reform goals and the need to ensure a fair transition to zero”. Calum MacLeod, policy director for Community Land Scotland, said the government’s timetable was not urgent. It may take several years for the legislation to take effect. Scotland urgently needs land reform legislation to regulate ‘off-the-market’ property sales, apply public interest testing to major land transfers and current land, and facilitate the use of existing Community land acquisition rights before the end of 2023. “he said.
