Rural land market reporting

Evidence to inform rural land policy

On this page

Scotland’s rural land market influences farming, forestry, nature restoration and the way communities develop.

The Scottish Land Commission, in partnership with SRUC, publishes annual reporting to help policy makers, researchers and the sector understand how this market is changing.

Our reporting is built around two complementary reports each year:

Insights Report. Based on anonymised interviews with land agents, providing a window into market sentiment, drivers of demand and trends that don’t appear in the official data.
Data Report. Tracks sales of farmland, estates and forestry, analysing volumes, prices and geographic patterns across Scotland.

Together, these reports offer the clearest picture available of Scotland’s rural land market and how it is evolving over time.

Latest reports

Get the most recent analysis of the rural land market.

Insights Report

Scotland’s rural land market is showing signs of cooling, with falling demand in key sectors such as commercial forestry and natural capital investment. The report reveals how economic and political uncertainty have reshaped rural land market activity over the past year.

READ INSIGHTS REPORT

DOWNLOAD POLICY BRIEFING

Data Report

New figures show Scotland’s rural land market continued to cool in 2024, with fewer large-scale sales and a marked drop in forestry values contributing to a quieter and more varied picture across the country.

READ DATA REPORT

0.5%

of Scotland’s land changed hands last year reflecting a slowdown in the market from previous years.

How we gather the evidence

Our approach combines market intelligence with transaction data:

Anonymous interviews with land agents give a real-time view of market sentiment and emerging trends.
Sales data, analysed with Scotland’s Rural College SRUC, tracks transactions for farmland, estates and forestry across Scotland.

Comprehensive information on rural land transactions can be difficult to obtain. By combining these two approaches we aim to build the most complete and trusted evidence base available and continue to work with partners to improve transparency over time.

Why it matters

Rural land sales both influence and respond to policy decisions across a wide range of areas. These reports provide policy makers, research bodies and the sector with a shared evidence base to understand and shape the evolving land market.