Monthly LBTT Statistics: January 2025
Key points
- Residential LBTT, excluding Additional Dwelling Supplement (ADS), was £29.0m in January 2025. This was 35% lower than in December 2024 (£44.6m) but 10% higher than in January 2024 (£26.4m).
- Non-residential LBTT, excluding ADS, was £16.8m in January 2025. This was 36% lower than December 2024 (£26.3m) but 94% higher than January 2024 (£8.9m). Non-residential revenues are highly variable between months, due to the effect of small numbers of high value transactions.
- Gross Additional Dwelling Supplement for January was £17.8m, the highest for any January, but lower than the past three months. Note that the rate of ADS changed from 6% to 8% where the contract for the transaction was entered into after 4th December 2024.
Introduction
This publication is part of a monthly series of Land and Building Transaction Tax (LBTT) statistics, started in April 2015, which provides data on the number and value of notifiable transactions reported to Revenue Scotland.
An Official Statistics Publication for Scotland
These statistics are official statistics. Official statistics are statistics that are produced by crown bodies, those acting on behalf of crown bodies, or those specified in statutory orders, as defined in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.
Revenue Scotland statistics are regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.
Residential LBTT
Figure 1: Residential LBTT, excluding Additional Dwelling Supplement (ADS), was £29.0 million in January 2025. This is a 35% decrease compared to December 2024.
Line chart displaying residential LBTT, excluding ADS, by month, April 2015 – January 2025.
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Residential LBTT, excluding ADS, was 35% lower in January 2025 (£29.0m) than in the previous month (£44.6m). Every year since 2015 has seen a decrease in residential LBTT, excluding ADS, between the months of December and January. Fewer houses are purchased in January than in December, with both January and February typically being a low point in the year for both residential LBTT revenue and residential LBTT returns submitted.
Figure 2: Residential LBTT, excluding Additional Dwelling Supplement (ADS), was the highest yet for the month of January (£29.0 million).
Residential LBTT, excluding ADS, declared in January of each year, 2016-2025.
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Residential LBTT, excluding ADS, was 10% higher in January 2025 (£29.0m) than in January 2024 (£26.4m). The number of residential LBTT returns submitted in the month of January has been relatively consistent over the years (high of 7,040 in 2021; low of 5,710 in 2023), so the general trend of increasing LBTT revenue is due to rising property prices.
Figure 3: 6,380 Residential LBTT returns were submitted in January 2025.
Residential LBTT returns submitted in January each year, 2016-2025.
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Non-Residential LBTT, excluding ADS
Figure 4: Non-residential LBTT, excluding ADS, was £16.8 million in January 2025. This is a 36% decrease compared to December 2024.
Line chart displaying non-residential LBTT, excluding ADS, by month, April 2015 – January 2025.
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Non-residential LBTT, excluding ADS, was 36% lower in January 2025 (£16.8m) compared to the previous month (£26.3m). This drop between December and January is normal, as non-residential LBTT is typically high in December each year.
Figure 5: The number of non-residential conveyance returns submitted in January 2025 was the lowest since January 2024. Lease reviews and lease returns increased slightly on the previous month.
Line chart displaying the number of non-residential LBTT returns submitted, by type of return, by month, January 2024 – January 2025.
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Non-residential conveyance returns decreased by 41% in January 2025 compared to the previous month. This drop is expected and follows the usual pattern seen between December and January each year. The number of new leases increased slightly on the previous month, as did the number of lease review returns (which includes 3-year, 6-year and 9-year lease reviews, as well as assignation and termination returns).
Additional Dwelling Supplement (ADS)
Figure 6: The number of LBTT returns received which declared ADS due was 1,330 in January 2025. This is slightly lower than January 2024 and is the lowest for any month of January on record, though not by a large margin.
Bar chart displaying the number of LBTT returns received which declared ADS due, for each month of January, 2017-2025.
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The number of LBTT returns received with ADS declared due was 2% lower in January 2025 (1,330) compared to January 2024 (1,360). This is the lowest so far for the month of January and is 36% lower than the high for the month of January (2,080) received in 2019.
Figure 7: Gross ADS declared in January 2025 was £17.8 million. This is the highest for any month of January.
Bar chart displaying gross ADS declared due in each month of January, 2017-2025.
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Gross ADS (ADS before reclaims are deducted) was £17.8m in January 2025. This is the highest figure for any month of January. The increase in gross ADS compared to January 2024, despite fewer returns with ADS due, is largely due to the ADS rate increasing from 6% to 8% in December 2024.
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Enquiries
For enquiries about this publication please contact:
Revenue Scotland Statistics & Management Information Team: statistics@revenue.scot