If you want to identify the owner of a piece of land in Scotland, you will likely come up against an all too familiar challenge; unregistered land. Currently, Scotland’s registered land mass coverage sits at nearly 56%. 

Unregistered, however, has never meant unaccounted for, and Savills land referencing team is accustomed to searching Scotland’s General Register of Sasines, where unregistered land is recorded. 

An innovative project undertaken by Registers of Scotland (RoS) is helping to indicate the likely owners of areas not on the land register. This has so far added an additional 33% of indicative ownership and boundaries of Sasine titles.

Setting the scene

The General Register of Sasines, established in 1617, is the world’s oldest national public land register. It catalogues indexes leading to sasine search sheets, which provide a summary of deeds recorded on a property. These deeds may include detailed descriptions and sometimes cartographic plans. 

Searching the sasine register requires diligence and expertise, but despite its challenges, the register is an invaluable tool once you know how to use it.

Measures taken to date

Previously, land moved from the sasine register to the land register only upon sale. Now, there are a wide number of activities that will prompt registration. If you sell, transfer, take out a mortgage or agree a long lease over unregistered land, your land will be registered. RoS offers discounts for voluntary registration and previously implemented “Keeper Induced Registration”, for residential properties. 

RoS is keen to spur on land registration completion. However, there is only so much that The Keeper can do to get there; progress in land registration really lies in the hands of those who control the land.

Indicative Sasines layer

The latest initiative launched by RoS is groundbreaking. For the first time in its over 400-year history, the majority of the sasine register has been visually represented. 

The indicative sasines layer is now available for business account customers to view on ScotLIS, the online property information service. RoS is currently evaluating options to also offer indicative sasines to members of the public.

The dataset aims to bridge the gap between the General Register of Sasines and the modern Land Register, by providing a starting point for understanding the ownership and boundaries of unregistered properties. The layer provides indicative boundaries for most unregistered land and directs users to a sasine search sheet number.  

However, this data cannot be relied upon in the same way a land registered title can be, and while RoS makes the use limitations clear, there is a risk that searchers may rely on the information too heavily. 

Savills took part in a pilot with RoS involving the dataset between June 2023 and December 2024. With early insight into the data, we were able to work with RoS on how it could be improved and what challenges there were with the information. One suggestion was to improve the RAG (red, amber, green) status on the land parcels to indicate the confidence in boundaries shown, this was implemented and helps to mitigate risks in the data’s use.  

The indicative sasines layer can be a valuable resource for researchers, surveyors, the legal profession and anybody involved in land assembly in taking the first step to identifying owners of unregistered land. However, due to the complexity of the Sasine Register, users must exercise caution and consult the right expertise to interpret the records accurately.

Further information

Contact Eleanor Baronchelli or Ludo Baronchelli

Sources: Land mass coverage in Scotland