Estate agent reports a surge of interest in Scottish estates as buyers capitalise on their green credentials
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Climate change concerns are helping drive up demand for Scotland's rural estates.
International real estate agency Savills has reported a 98 per cent increase in buyers registering with it to purchase rural property in Scotland in 2020.
Although there was international interest, pandemic travel restrictions resulted in 70 per cent of Savills Scottish estate buyers being based in the UK. Despite the lack of overseas sales, the total value of Scottish estates sold last year increased by 43 per cent to £100 million, in part as a result of stronger demand, including from purchasers concerned about the climate crisis.
Evelyn Channing, Savills head of rural agency in Scotland, said: “We continue to receive our fair share of calls from buyers across the world, looking to hole up in Scotland in splendid isolation. But becoming more prevalent are new entrants wishing to buy land not for its amenity or sporting potential, but for its green credentials. The ESG agenda (environmental, social and corporate governance) is bringing buyers forward of all shapes and sizes, from small Scottish businesses to large charities and investment companies.”
In particular, the continued focus on the climate crisis and the drive for net zero is fuelling demand for land suitable for planting trees.
This is resulting in forestry investors offering up to three times more for land than the traditional agricultural buyer.
Other buyers are looking to offset carbon emissions produced elsewhere, by purchasing natural capital. While this focus has largely been on planting land and established forests, it has also seen growing interest in purchasing peat bogs which until now had been regarded as having minimal value.
Ms Channing continued: “Scotland is one of the few remaining places in the world where green resources can be acquired on a meaningful scale. There is a lot of focus on addressing the climate crisis both at an individual level and from a national response.
“This will only grow over the next decade. Scottish estates have an expanding role to play and we anticipate significant diverse interest in the estates that we will be bringing forward to the market over the next 24 months.
"There is a distinct imbalance between supply and demand, and as a result those that are electing to offer their estates for sale are benefitting significantly from the current market conditions”.
