The numbers are now large enough to notice, but not yet stable enough to compare.
Official statistics published on 28 April show that 32,317 short-term let licences or exemptions were in operation across Scotland as of 31 December 2025. The figure offers the clearest snapshot yet of a sector that has expanded rapidly in recent years, though the Scottish Government cautions that the series remains too immature for meaningful comparisons over time.
The licensing system itself is relatively recent. Local authorities began accepting applications on 1 October 2022, under regulations introduced through the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 as amended by the 2022 order on short-term lets. Since then, at least 42,355 applications have been submitted. That total includes renewals, withdrawn applications and cases still awaiting determination, and therefore does not represent a settled count of operating properties.
What can be observed is the composition of the market. Of the active licences recorded at the end of 2025, 78 per cent relate to premises that are not the operator’s primary residence. The remaining 22 per cent involve hosts letting out their own home, either entirely or on a shared basis. The balance suggests that the majority of activity sits closer to commercial use than occasional home sharing.
The geographical distribution is uneven. Na h-Eileanan Siar recorded the highest concentration, with 707 short-term lets per 10,000 dwellings. At the other end of the scale, East Renfrewshire recorded just 10 per 10,000 dwellings. The contrast reflects a wider pattern in which tourism-led and rural areas tend to carry a far higher density of short-term accommodation than suburban or commuter regions.
The figures are drawn from returns submitted by local authorities, which are responsible for administering the licensing system. As such, they depend on the pace at which applications are processed and recorded, as well as the level of compliance among operators. The Scottish Government notes that the dataset is still developing and should be interpreted with caution, particularly where trends over time are concerned.
The introduction of licensing was intended to bring consistency and oversight to a sector that had grown with relatively limited regulation. The current data does not yet provide a full measure of its impact. It does, however, establish a baseline: a count of licensed activity, a view of how that activity is distributed, and an indication of the balance between commercial and domestic use.
For now, the picture remains incomplete. The system is still working through applications, and the statistical series has not reached maturity. What is available is a first structured account of a sector that has moved from the margins into a more formal framework, and whose scale, at more than thirty thousand licensed properties, is no longer incidental to Scotland’s housing landscape.
