Scottish property tax revenues top £628m

The Scottish property firm said this growth in land and buildings transaction tax was largely driven by the additional dwelling supplement (ADS), a tax on second homes and buy-to-let properties, which accounted for 31.1% of total revenue.

The ADS figure for May was £21.2m which is the highest ever monthly figure and is £3.3m up on the previous month’s total of £17.9m which was itself the previous highest ever figure.

Almost all the residential taxes raised arose from properties sold for more than £325,001. The 16,710 transactions above this threshold raised £358.4m which is 82.8% of the total £432.7m raised in LBTT (this is the figure for residential sales with the ADS figures removed). This means that the average tax levied per transaction was £21,448.

“With a 10% property tax beginning at £325,001 in Scotland compared to £925,001 in England we are charged substantially more than our English counterparts,” said David Alexander, CEO of DJ Alexander Scotland.

“A property valued at £325,000 is not even the average price of a home in some parts of Scotland. For new builds there are many areas of Scotland where prices are considerably higher than this level with East Lothian the greatest at £404,478.”

Mr Alexander noted that “the short term the Scottish property market remains the strongest in the UK increasing 1.9% between May 2023 and April 2024”, but added that “there are clear signs the rate of increase is slowing so higher Scottish property taxes may exacerbate this slowdown in the near future”.