Understanding what’s happening with Scotland’s land

10 February, 2026

Guest blog: What does it mean to value land fairly and credibly in practice?

Some kinds of land reform – especially those delivered through the tax system – rely on valuing land. Land valuation may seem like a technical matter of data and professional expertise, but it’s deceptively challenging in practice, and that matters for reform.

2 February, 2026

Relinquishment and Assignation: Are we seeing the benefits?

I was contacted recently by a new entrant who had become somewhat disillusioned with the procedure for trying to purchase a tenancy that had been through the Relinquishment and Assignation process. They were experiencing a number of barriers to progressing the purchase and wanted to highlight some issues they had faced.

27 January, 2026

Refreshing our good practice Protocols

Our first protocol was published in 2019 and set out expectations for good practice in community engagement. In the following years, we published a further eight protocols covering a range of topic from transparency of ownership and decision-making to responsible natural capital and carbon management.

18 January, 2026

Delivering community benefits from nature: what we’ve learned so far

The Community benefits from nature project has been up and running for almost a year. During this time we have begun to work with three landowners and the communities local to their estates to agree and deliver community benefits.

18 December, 2025

Why land reform matters more than ever: Five takeaways from 2025

As we come to the close of 2025, it’s clear that questions of who owns Scotland’s land, how it’s used, and who benefits from it have moved further into the public eye. This has been a year when long-running debates sharpened, new voices joined the conversation, and the need for reform is felt more widely than ever.

11 December, 2025

Transparency and Scotland's rural land market

This week we publish our new Rural Land Market Data Report 2025. This piece of research, provides the latest insights into the landscape of rural land ownership and value in Scotland.

9 December, 2025

Forestry values fall by a third as Scotland’s rural land market continues to cool

New figures from the Scottish Land Commission 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.

2 December, 2025

Why the review of Scotland’s Rights to Buy matters

Owning land and buildings offers communities the chance to meet their needs and provide a wide range of benefits, with community ownership of assets supporting economic opportunities and local jobs, social and wellbeing activities, local heritage and culture, housing for residents, and healthy environments.