A NEW report has revealed the extent of foreign land and property ownership in Scotland, including the number of titles held by Russians.

The report from Registers of Scotland (RoS) found that overall, titles with a UK owner address outwith Scotland represent just under a sixth of the country’s land area.

While the vast majority of owners of property and land -  93.1% - live in Scotland, 5.2% of titles are held by people living in the UK outwith Scotland, while 1.5% are outwith the UK.

The USA accounted for the largest number of titles held by foreign owners, at just over 3,000 - followed by Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, Republic of Ireland and Jersey.

The RoS report shows there are 182 land register titles with owners based in the Russian Federation - ranking it 31 out of just over 100 countries who have owners holding land and property in Scotland. 

READ MORE: Scottish business should boycott Russia to 'cripple Putin's economy', Kate Forbes says

The invasion of Ukraine and tough economic sanctions has prompted questions over property held by Russian oligarchs, individuals and companies in Scotland.

Earlier this month it emerged the Scottish Government had sought “urgent advice” on how Holyrood’s powers can be used to take action against Kremlin-linked organisations and individuals in the country.

However land reform expert and former Green MSP Andy Wightman recently warned that identifying wealthy individuals who own property is not always easy as they can hide their identify by registering ownership with an overseas company or in a UK company- which is in turn owned by an overseas entity.

Among the Russian oligarchs known to own property in Scotland is Vladimir Lisin, who has an estimated net worth of $26bn.  His 1340-hectare Aberuchill Estate in Perthshire which he bought in 2005 for £6.8 million, is owned by Forestborne Ltd, a company registered in the British Virgin islands.

READ MORE: Rishi Sunak grilled on Sky News about wife's alleged ties to Russia

In total, the RoS report notes there were 1.86million land and property titles registered in Scotland at the end of last year.

This includes 27,635 titles in Scotland for which the owner had an address outwith the UK.

More companies purchasing or leasing in Scotland were based in Jersey than anywhere else.

More than eight out of ten land and property titles - 84% - were held by individuals, with 11.6% companies, 2.8% trustees or limited partnerships and 1.6% a combination of owner types.

When it comes to UK owners outwith Scotland, Edinburgh and Glasgow were the most popular areas of Scotland for these kind of titles, at 18% and 13% respectively.

Renfrewshire was the third most popular area, accounting for around 10 of outwith UK titles. 

The RoS report notes: “A contributory factor to this is the number of titles of parking spaces and storage facilities near to Glasgow Airport. 

“This is an unusual occurrence that does not appear to be repeated in any other local authority.”

Scottish Greens land reform spokesperson Ariane Burgess MSP said: “It is very worrying that more and more land in Scotland is owned by companies with offshore accounts.

"Apart from the obvious issues around tax avoidance and a lack of transparency, this is about power and who controls what happens in these places. 

“The Scottish Parliament was established with the promise to address the scale and concentration of landownership in Scotland and although there has been some good work done, including the establishment of the Scottish Land Commission, these figures provide a stark reminder that we need to do so much more.

"That’s why further land reform is part of the Bute House Agreement which brought Greens into government.

"I hope we can shift that land-based power away from murky offshore accounts to the communities that live in these places.”