I own a house or land back home. What does that mean for buying in Scotland?
If you own a house, a flat or a piece of land in another country, it can change what you pay in tax when you buy in Scotland. It usually does not stop you buying. But it is worth knowing before you make an offer, not after.
This page explains what the questions are and who answers them. The tax itself is not our decision or yours — it is Revenue Scotland's rules, applied by the solicitor handling your purchase.
Scotland has its own property tax
England has stamp duty. Scotland does not. Here it is Land and Buildings Transaction Tax, usually written LBTT — Scotland's version of stamp duty. Your solicitor works it out and pays it.
Sitting on top of LBTT there is a surcharge called the Additional Dwelling Supplement, usually written ADS: extra tax when you end up owning more than one home.
Both of these are the same for everyone buying in Scotland. Neither is a visa rule.
The part that catches people out
The Additional Dwelling Supplement can count property you own anywhere in the world, not only in Scotland.
That is the sentence most people have never been told. A flat you inherited, a family house with your name on the deeds, land you bought before you moved — any of it may mean the purchase here counts as your second property rather than your first, even though it is your only home in the UK.
Whether it actually applies depends on details: what exactly you own, whose name it is in, what it is worth, and whether you are buying with someone else. Those details are what decide it, and they are for Revenue Scotland's rules and your solicitor to apply. We would not want to guess at them here, and neither should anyone else who has not seen your paperwork.
First-time buyer relief
Scotland gives first-time buyers a reduction on LBTT. The catch is the same one: first-time buyer generally means you have never owned a home anywhere, not just never in the UK. Property abroad can take you outside it.
If you were counting on that relief, this is worth checking early, because it changes the cash you need on the day — and the amount you need on the day is what decides whether an offer is realistic.
What this does not do
It does not stop you getting a mortgage.
A lender will ask whether you own other property, and whether there is a loan against it. They ask because an existing mortgage is a monthly commitment like any other, and it comes off what you can afford here. Property you own outright with no borrowing against it is usually much simpler than people expect — it is a question on a form, not an obstacle.
What a lender will not do is treat you as ineligible for owning a family home in another country.
What to do before you offer
- Write down exactly what you own and where — including anything in your name jointly with a relative, and anything you have inherited but not dealt with.
- Tell your solicitor at the start, not at the end. The Additional Dwelling Supplement is calculated as part of your purchase, and finding out about it a week before completion is how people end up short of cash.
- Tell us too, because if there is a mortgage on that property it affects how much you can borrow here, and which lenders are worth approaching.
Where to get the real answer
- Revenue Scotland publishes the LBTT and Additional Dwelling Supplement rules, and they are the authority on both.
- Your solicitor applies those rules to your actual purchase. In Scotland you will have one anyway — no purchase completes without one.
- We can tell you what the borrowing looks like either way, and get that part settled while the tax question is being answered.
Your first 30-minute call is free. If you own anything abroad, say so on that call — it is one of the few things that is much easier to sort out early than late.