Off-market sales
Several stakeholders highlighted that these provisions might help address the problem of a high number of off-market sales – where land is sold by private negotiation without ever coming on the market, so without anyone being aware of the sale.iWritten submissions including Development Trusts Association Scotland, Scottish Community Alliance, Community Woodlands Association, Dr Jill Robbie, Andy Wightman The Community Woodlands Association told us that 64% of sales in 2021 were off-market, “making it very difficult for communities to have the chance to buy the land and contributing to an overall lack of transparency”.Written submission of Community Woodlands Association Dr Jill Robbie highlighted that natural capital markets were impacting on this as “there are just a few buyers who are phoned up, and it is that closed group of people who know about the sale”.Written submission of Dr Jill Robbie Peter Peacock also raised concerns about an increasing trend towards “a dark market” of land sales in Scotland as well as the fact that a lot of land in Scotland never comes onto the market at all, leading to a lack of transparency, lack of public scrutiny and “disempowered communities”.Written submission of Peter Peacock It was also the perception of the Langholm Initiative, who the Committee visited...