LBTT to September 2026: Scotland's Property Tax Take Is 3% Lower, and Gross ADS Is Down 6%

September 2026 in Figures

Revenue Scotland published its monthly Land and Buildings Transaction Tax statistics on 9 October 2026, adding returns received in September. LBTT replaced stamp duty in Scotland in April 2015, so none of these figures include England, Wales or Northern Ireland. They measure the tax buyers declared on their returns, which is not the same as cash collected in the month.

Residential LBTT fell further than the number of returns, and the difference sits at the top of the market. Purchases between £325,001 and £750,000 declared £29.5m in September against £33.1m a year earlier, and purchases over £750,000 declared £10.7m against £12.8m, on 130 returns rather than 160. Those two bands carry most residential LBTT, because the 10% and 12% rates apply to the slices of price above £325,000 and £750,000.

Gross ADS of £26.1m was 1% below August and 10% below September 2025. Revenue Scotland notes it was still the second highest September since ADS was introduced in 2016, behind only September 2025.

April to September: The Financial Year So Far

A single month can move for reasons that wash out over a longer period, particularly on the non-residential side. These are the first six months of 2026-27 against the same six months of 2025-26, summed from Revenue Scotland's monthly figures.

The total is lower by £15.1m. Almost all of the fall is non-residential: residential LBTT excluding ADS is within £0.5m of last year, and the non-residential line is £39.2m lower. The ADS line in the total is the net figure Revenue Scotland uses in its headline table, which brings its own complication, covered in the next section.

No LBTT rate or band changed between the two periods. The residential bands have been the same since 1 April 2021, the non-residential bands since 25 January 2019, and ADS has been 8% of the full price since 5 December 2024. The changes in the table are changes in what was bought, not in how it was taxed.

Why Net ADS Looks Higher When ADS Is Falling

The Additional Dwelling Supplement is charged at the point of purchase when the buyer already owns another residential property worth £40,000 or more. A buyer who is replacing a main home but has not yet sold the old one pays it too. For purchases with an effective date on or after 1 April 2024, that buyer can claim the ADS back from Revenue Scotland if the previous main residence is sold within 36 months.

Revenue Scotland records each repayment against the month of the original purchase. So the net ADS figure for any recent month starts high and falls as claims come in, which can be years after the purchase. It is one reason Revenue Scotland marks the statistics provisional for two years and revises them every month.

The 2025 purchases have had a year longer for their owners to sell and claim, so £51.3m has already come off them. The 2026 purchases have had £17.1m claimed so far. Before any repayments, 2026 is lower: £147.5m of ADS against £156.9m, on 10,180 returns with ADS due against 10,830.

The revision is visible within a single month. The August release put net ADS for August 2026 at £25.6m. The September release puts the same month at £24.3m, because £1.3m more in repayments was claimed in the meantime.

Where the Fall in Residential Purchases Was

Residential returns fell 4.5% over the six months while residential LBTT excluding ADS barely moved. Revenue Scotland's breakdown by total price shows why.

The fall in purchases was steepest at the bottom of the market. Purchases up to £145,000, which pay no LBTT, were down 9.5%, and purchases between £145,001 and £250,000 were down 4.5%. Purchases between £325,001 and £750,000 rose 2.0%, and that band alone accounts for 63% of residential LBTT excluding ADS. Fewer low-value purchases and slightly more mid-to-upper value ones left the tax total almost unchanged.

LBTT figures in this table exclude ADS and are allocated by the total price of the purchase. A purchase in the £325,001 to £750,000 band still pays 0%, 2% and 5% on the lower slices of its price. The table excludes leases, so its return counts are slightly below the headline residential total.

Non-Residential LBTT

Non-residential LBTT excluding ADS was £12.5m in September 2026, up 10% on August but 35% below September 2025. Over the six months it was £82.6m against £121.8m, a fall of 32.2%. Revenue Scotland cautions that non-residential revenues are highly variable between months because a small number of high-value transactions make up much of the total.

September shows that effect. There were 200 non-residential purchases over £350,000 in both September 2025 and September 2026. In 2025 they declared £17.9m. In 2026 they declared £10.6m. The number of large deals held, but the deals were smaller.

Activity on the other measures was steady. Non-residential conveyance returns were 630 in September, up 15% on 550 in August. New lease returns were 350, up from 300, and lease review returns, which include three, six and nine-year reviews, assignations and terminations, were 760 against 790.

Revisions to 2025-26

Because every month is revised as ADS repayments are claimed, the totals for 2025-26 have changed since the August release. On the same basis, summing the monthly figures for April 2025 to March 2026:

The whole change is ADS repayments. Non-residential LBTT did not move. 2025-26 remains the highest year on this basis, although it will be revised down further as claims arrive: the same sum for 2024-25 is now £892.3m, so 2025-26 was 8.2% higher. We have updated the figures in our article on the Scotland LBTT review 2026, which quoted the August release.

What This Means for Buyers

Nothing in this release changes what any buyer pays. Residential LBTT is 0% up to £145,000, 2% from £145,001 to £250,000, 5% from £250,001 to £325,000, 10% from £325,001 to £750,000 and 12% above £750,000, and ADS is 8% of the full price. The full tables are on our current LBTT rates page.

ADS is the part most often missed by buyers from elsewhere in the UK. It applies if a buyer already owns a residential property worth £40,000 or more anywhere in the world and is not replacing a main home, so someone who owns a home in England and buys a second home in Scotland pays the 8% ADS rather than the English surcharge. Our guide to relocating between Scotland and England covers how the two systems interact.

For a buyer who pays ADS while waiting to sell a previous main home, the 36-month window matters more than these statistics. The repayment is not automatic. It has to be claimed from Revenue Scotland once the sale completes.

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