Rural lifestyle and residential buyers
While not as high as during the COVID-19 pandemic, interest in small or amenity estates was steady through 2025. These buyers are typically not looking for business or investment opportunities, but rather seeking to meet particular lifestyle expectations. What is less clear is whether or how many such buyers are actually making a move to live in rural Scotland, or whether these acquisitions are second homes.
Similarly, the previously reported trend of farmhouses and cottages being split from the land upon sale has continued. Again, it’s not clear whether those acquiring these properties are moving to the country, or seeking a rural second home.
Aside from the often discussed issues around rural second home ownership, it is also worth considering that once a farmhouse is split from its holding it’s unlikely to be recombined in the future. This means that even for new entrants who could afford to buy land there is a real issue as to whether they would be able to live within a reasonable distance of the holding.
Amenity woodland sales have also been steady, and provided a different route to meet lifestyle ambitions. As with amenity estates, such purchases are not strictly motivated by business opportunities, although agents note that buyers are aware that qualifying woodland up to the value of £1 million can be exempt from Inheritance Tax.
