Changes by property type

The primary purpose of a revaluation is to update the tax base to reflect changes in the property market. This means that there are notable differences in how the rateable values changed for different types of properties. This report includes breakdowns of changes by three classifications of property types: class, core, and sector.

Property class is a description used by the Scottish Assessors to describe the type of a property on the valuation roll, and may not necessarily reflect its use: for example, a property described as a ‘shop’ for rating purposes may in fact be used to provide financial services.

The core description is a more detailed description of a type of property. There are around 200 core descriptions. Like classes, these describe the type of a property, but may not in all cases reflect their uses. Core descriptions do not nest within classes, and properties with the same core description can have different classes. For example, “restaurants” can be in the class “shops”, or “public houses”.

Sectors are groupings of core descriptions, grouped by the Scottish Government for this report. These group properties which are likely to provide similar services, even if they differ for valuation purposes, such as self-catering units and hotels. This report includes six sectors: retail, hospitality - accommodation, hospitality - food and drink, leisure, offices, and industry. Table 2.3 shows which core descriptions are included in each sector. The sectors presented in this publication do not correspond to sectors in the Standard Industrial Classification.

There is some overlap between similarly named sectors and classes, but each sector will include some properties not listed in the equivalent class, and will not include some properties listed in the equivalent class. For example, some properties with the core description “office” are not recorded in the “offices” class, but are included within the offices sector.

This section relates only to properties which were on the valuation roll on both 31 March 2026 and 1 April 2026, with the same core description on both dates. The total rateable value of these properties increased by 10.85%, with an increase in the gross bills of 5.29% (Table 1.3).

Changes by property class

Figure 7 shows the change in rateable value and gross bills for each property class.

As a result of the revaluation, the total rateable value increased in each property class. The rateable value of advertising properties increased by 30%, followed by hotels at 26%. The lowest increases were among care facilities (less than 1%), followed by religious properties (4%).

The largest contribution to the overall increase in rateable value was from statutory undertakings (including designated utilities). The rateable value of these properties increased by 16%, contributing 2.44 percentage points to the 10.85% growth in rateable value. This is followed by industrial subjects, where the 12% growth in rateable value contributed 2.25 percentage points to the total increase.

A reduction of rates and the introduction of transitional reliefs mean that overall, the increase in gross bills is more moderate. For advertising properties, the gross bill increased by 13%, and for hotels by 17%. For care facilities and religious properties, the total gross bill is lower than before revaluation, due to a reduction in rates.

The largest contributions to the overall 5.29% increase in the gross bills relate to statutory undertakings (11%, contributing 1.65 percentage points), and to industrial subjects (7%, contributing 1.22 percentage points).

Figure 7: Change in rateable value and gross bill by property class

Changes for property sectors

Changes in rateable value and gross bills by property sector are presented in Figure 8.
Rateable values increased across all sectors, with the highest increase in rateable value in the accommodation sector, at 29%, contributing 1.47 percentage points to the overall increase in rateable values. This is followed by the industry sector at 12%, with the rateable values of the food and drink sector properties increasing by 10%.

Figure 8: Change in rateable value and gross bill by sector

The rateable value of retail, hospitality, and leisure properties combined increased by 11%, driven primarily by the increase in rateable values of accommodation and retail properties.

Publication tables 2.3 and 3.3, as well as additional tables A.4, A.9, A.10, B.4, B.9, and B.10 present changes in rateable values and gross bill by sector and a number of other variables, including rateable values before revaluation, council area, and scale of change in rateable value or gross bills.

Figure 9 shows a breakdown of changes in rateable value by sector and rateable value band before revaluation. The largest proportional increase in rateable value was for properties in accommodation sector which had a rateable value of £20,000 or below before revaluation. The overall rateable value increased across all sectors, and within all rateable value bands.

Figure 9: Changes in rateable value by sector and rateable value band before revaluation

Retail sector

The retail sector is made up of nearly 47,000 properties, including shops, retail warehouses, petrol filling stations, garden centres, and properties with other core descriptions which imply a significant retail function.

At the 2026 revaluation, the overall rateable value of the retail sector increased by 6%, leading to an increase in the gross bill of around 1%.

The rateable value increased for nearly half of retail properties (23,100), by an average £4,400, and decreased for around 16% (7,700) by an average of £3,800. Figure 10 shows the distribution of changes in rateable value for each sector.

Within this sector, the highest increases were for petrol stations, at 20%, and for auction marts, at 18%. The rateable value of shops, by far the most represented core description within this sector, increased by around 5%, which combined with decreased rates and the revaluation transitional relief lead to an increase in gross bills of 0.01%.

Figure 9 shows a relatively narrow range in changes by rateable value band. Retail properties with the highest rateable values, over £1 million, had an increase in total rateable value of just over 2%, while the smallest properties, those with rateable values before revaluation lower than £20,000, had an increase of 7%.

The rateable value of retail properties increased in most council areas, with the largest increases seen in the City of Edinburgh (18%) and Midlothian (15%), with decreases in Dundee (less than 1%), Falkirk (3%), and Stirling (6%). Figure 11 shows the change in rateable value of each sector within each council area.

Figure 10: Distribution of changes in rateable value by sector

Hospitality – accommodation sector

The accommodation sector includes 26,000 properties for which the core description implies accommodation to be the primary use, such as hotels, hostels, self-catering properties, guest houses, and time-share units.

The overall rateable value of accommodation properties increased by 29%, with a corresponding increase in the gross bills after revaluation transitional relief of 15%. Around 23,000 properties saw an increase in rateable value, on average by £5,300, while for 2,700 accommodation properties the rateable value decreased by an average of £3,300. Figure 10 shows the distribution of changes in rateable value for each sector.

Over 60% of the total rateable value increase in this sector is attributable to hotels, for which the rateable value increased by 27%, an average increase of around £31,000. The gross bill for hotels, after revaluation transitional relief is applied, increased by 19% to an average of £76,700. Hotels account for just under 8% of properties in the accommodation sector; both before and after revaluation they accounted for nearly two thirds of the rateable value in the sector.

The rateable value of self-catering units, accounting for more than two thirds of properties in the accommodation sector, and for almost a fifth of the rateable value before revaluation, increased by 40%, or around £1,700 on average, and of caravans by 310% or £2,400 on average, with the average gross bills increasing by 7% and 14% respectively. This reflects the generally lower rateable value of these entries: after revaluation, the median rateable value of caravan entries is £1,050, and the median rateable value of self-catering properties is £4,600, meaning half of the properties with each core description have a rateable value lower than those figures.

The total rateable value of the accommodation sector increased in all council areas. These range from increases of over 40% in Na h-Eileanan Siar (42%), Clackmannanshire (43%), Scottish Borders (43%), and the Orkney Islands (45%) on the upper end, to increases below 10% in Aberdeen City (3%), West Dunbartonshire (4%), and East Lothian and North Lanarkshire (both 7%). Figure 11 shows the change in rateable value of each sector within each council area.

As shown in Figure 9, the highest proportional increases were among the smallest accommodation properties, with those with rateable values under £20,000 seeing an increase of 38% overall. Accommodation properties with rateable values between £100,000 and £1 million contributed most to the overall increase for accommodation properties, with a 29% increase in rateable values accounting for £50 million of the £110 million increase in rateable value for the sector.

Hospitality – food and drink sector

The food and drink sector includes around 10,000 properties where the core description implies the serving of food or drink for consumption on the premises is the primary activity. This includes public houses, restaurants, clubs, cafes, and snack bars.

The average rateable value of properties in the food and drink sector increased by 10%, with increases for 5,500 properties of £7,700 on average, and decreases for 2,700 properties of £4,800 on average. The average gross bill for the food and drink sector increased by less than 3%, after revaluation transitional relief is applied. Figure 10 shows the distribution of changes in rateable value for each sector.

The rateable value of public houses increased most in this sector, by around 14%, accounting for more than half of the overall increase in rateable values for the food and drink sector, with gross bills increasing by 6%. The median rateable value of public houses increased from £18,750 to £20,000. The rateable values of snack bars increased on average by 11%, of clubs by 9%, and of cafes and restaurants by 7%.

Figure 9 shows a relatively high increase for the largest properties within the food and drink sector, with other properties showing lower, and broadly similar changes. The largest increases in this sector, of 17%, affected the two largest properties, with rateable values of over £1 million. The changes for other rateable value bands are broadly similar, ranging between 8% for those in both the rateable values bands £100,001 to £1 million, and £20,000 or less, and 11% for those with rateable values between £20,000 and £51,000.

The highest proportional increases were in Scottish Borders and Glasgow City (21% and 16% respectively), while the rateable value decreased in Dumfries and Galloway (4%) and in Renfrewshire (5%). Figure 11 shows the change in rateable value of each sector within each council area.

Leisure sector

The leisure sector includes around 5,000 properties with core descriptions implying a leisure or recreation activity, such as museums, historic buildings, leisure centres, theatres and cinemas, as well as various types of sports clubs.

Properties in the leisure sector saw their rateable value increase by an average of 8%, and their gross bills increasing by 3%. Around 3,100 properties saw an average increase of £7,800, and 800 properties saw an average decrease of £6,300. Figure 10 shows the distribution of changes in rateable value for each sector.

The rateable value increased across all rateable value bands, with a higher proportional increase (15%) for properties with a rateable value of between £51,001 and £100,000 than other rateable value bands, as can be seen in Figure 9.

The rateable value of leisure properties increased in all council areas, as can be seen in Figure 11. This ranges from increases of 1% in East Renfrewshire and 2% in Dumfries and Galloway, to 15% in North Lanarkshire and 16% in North Ayrshire.

There is significant variation in the changes for different core descriptions within this sector. Nearly all had some increase in rateable value, with decreases for cinemas (16%), tennis clubs (7%), and parks (1%). Castles, historic buildings, and theatres had the highest increases, at 32%, 30%, and 29% respectively.

Figure 11: Change in rateable value by council area and sector

Office sector

The office sector includes over 44,000 properties, 98% of which with the core description “office”, with the remaining 2% of properties made up of banks and ATM sites. The overall rateable value of these properties increased by 5% at revaluation, leading to an increase of less than 1% in the average gross bill.

The rateable value increased for nearly half (21,300) of the properties in the office sector, by an average of £4,100. For 8,600 (19%), the rateable value decreased by an average of £4,700.

Properties in the office sector which had a rateable value between £51,000 and £100,000 before revaluation had the smallest average increase across rateable value bands, of 2%. Properties in the office sector with a pre-revaluation rateable value of up to £20,000 saw the largest increase of rateable value, of 6%.

Properties where ‘office’ is the core description saw an average increase in rateable value of 5%. The rateable value of ATM sites decreased by 60%, while for banks it increased by 1%.

Average rateable values of properties in the office sector decreased in eight council areas, and by most in South Lanarkshire (30%) and North Lanarkshire (12%). The biggest average rateable value increases in this sector were seen in City of Edinburgh (17%), and East Lothian (17%). Figure 11 shows the change in rateable value of each sector within each council area.

Industry sector

The industry sector covers over 60,000 premises such as stores, workshops, warehouses, factories, and yards. These properties had an increase of rateable value of 12%, and in gross bills after revaluation transitional relief of 7%.

The rateable value increased across all rateable value bands, with the slightly larger proportional increase (14%) for those premises with a rateable value of between £20,001 and £51,000. The largest industrial properties, with rateable values over £1 million, saw an increase of 9%.

Nearly two thirds (38,800) of properties in this sector saw an increase in rateable value at revaluation, with an average increase of £4,600, and an average increase in gross bills of £1,700.

The rateable value of the industry sector increased in most areas, with the highest increases in Stirling (24%) and South Ayrshire (23%). It decreased in West Dunbartonshire, by 3%, and in Na h-Eileanan Siar, by 1%. Figure 11 shows the change in rateable value of each sector within each council area.

All core descriptions within this sector saw an increase in rateable value, with changes broadly similar to the overall change of 12%. An exception are docks (5 entries) for which the rateable value increased by 31% on average, with the average rateable value of docks after revaluation being £925,000.

Other sector

The ‘other’ sector includes 66,000 properties with over 100 different core descriptions, which did not reasonably fall within other sectors. This includes varying types of properties such as car parks, advertising, both designated and non-designated utilities, as well as airports and airfields, schools, nurseries, hospitals, and places of worship.

The overall rateable value of this sector increased by 12%, with an increase in gross bills after revaluation transitional relief of 7%.

Some of the most common property types within this sector include airfields (including airports), with an average increase in rateable value of 78%, harbours (34%), prisons (33%), military facilities (18%), and hospitals (17%). The rateable value of shootings entries decreased, on average, by 6%.

Designated utilities

Some assessors have responsibility for a specific group of designated utilities, and their non-domestic rates bills are issued by a specific council regardless of their geographical location. In this report, they are identified as a separate assessor and council area, as they are usually entries with high rateable values, which could distort the overall changes presented for the assessor and council areas where they are entered.

Designated utilities are entries which usually span several assessor and council areas, such as pipelines, electricity transmission and distribution networks, or the railway network. These figures include only entries valued as designated utilities; smaller entries which are included in the local valuation roll in their area are not included.

Changes to rateable values of designated utilities by type of utility are available in Table 2.5, and changes to their gross bills in Table 3.5. Changes to both are also presented in Figure 12. These tables are available in the associated workbook.

As a result of revaluation, the rateable value of designated utilities increased by 20%, from £799 million to £962 million. This contributes 2.18 percentage points to the change in rateable value of 10.85% (excluding additions, removals, and changes to property types).

Figure 12: Changes in rateable value and gross bill of designated utilities

Over half of this total increase in rateable value among designated utilities relates to electricity entries (generation, transmission, and distribution), valued by the Lanarkshire Assessor and billed by South Lanarkshire Council, and nearly another quarter relating to gas utilities (transmission, distribution, and metering), which are valued by the Dunbartonshire and Argyll and Bute assessor, and billed by West Dunbartonshire Council.

The rateable value of the Scottish Water entry, the only designated water utility, remained unchanged, leading to a decrease in the gross bill of nearly 4%.