Foreign property ownership hotspot revealed

It is thought the ownership could be connected to airport parking

A new, official record of the foreign ownership of Scottish land and property has found that the highest concentration is in Renfrewshire.

The Registers of Scotland admits it does not know why almost one-fifth of properties registered with foreign owners - 2,810 of them - are in the county.

But it speculates that it might reflect the ownership of parcels of land used for Glasgow Airport parking. Most of the properties are within four postcode areas.

Among individuals registered as buying into Scottish property, Americans were the biggest nationality of purchasers.

They had 1,474 properties registered at the end of last year, out of 12,500 individually-owned properties.

A smaller category of foreign-owned property was registered with companies.

Of these, the official register shows that more than half were in four low-tax jurisdictions - Jersey, the British Virgin Islands, the Isle of Man and Guernsey.

Of 1,763 properties registered with foreign company ownership, Jersey accounted for 17%, and the British Virgin Islands 16%.

Registers of Scotland found 6% of properties on its Land Register at the end of December had addresses outside Scotland.

Of these, three-quarters (79,000) were in England and one in 12 (8,200) were in Northern Ireland.

There were 15,029 titles in the new Land Register with an owner or tenant giving an overseas address.

Of them, one in nine was a foreign company, and more than four in five were registered to individuals.

The Land Register is not yet complete. Only 64% of properties have been added to it so far.

Recent BBC analysis of land and property registrations in England and Wales found that more than quarter of foreign-registered owners were in the British Virgin Islands, owning more than 23,000 properties.