Overseas ownership: Australians most interested in Scottish property

Australia is the popular country of residence for overseas Scottish property owners, followed by the USA, new figures show.

SafeDeposits Scotland, the largest protector of Scottish tenancy deposits, has looked at where owners of Scottish residential property using the scheme are based, and found that Australia leads the way.

SafeDeposits Scotland’s own database shows that Australia tops the table by a considerable distance with 528 landlords of Scottish properties living there. The USA is second with 358 landlords.

Ireland ranked third for overseas Scottish property owners with 223, followed by the UAE (187), France (182), Spain (161) and Canada (126).

The top 10 was completed by Germany (113), New Zealand (109), and Hong Kong (108).

Ian Potter, Chair of SafeDeposits Scotland, said: “Scottish commercial property has become increasingly popular with overseas investors (Knight Frank reported a £40m growth between 2014 and 2018[1]), but information on those buying and renting private residential property has been less well documented. Alongside overseas investors will be Scots who have moved abroad – temporarily or permanently – and decided to retain property in Scotland.

“Our figures demonstrate that landlords of Scottish property live all over the world. The landlords that we know about are already aware of their obligations to protect tenancy deposits, but there may be others out there that are unfamiliar with the Scottish system.

“Landlords who fail to protect their tenant’s deposit run the risk of a penalty up to the value of three times the value of the deposit should the tenant take them to the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber).”

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