Wealthy use loophole to conceal value of £300m in Scottish land sales

Oxygen Conservation and other landowners have used a mechanism that allows them not to disclose the purchase price of Highland estates. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

Land reform campaigners are alarmed at the increasing use of a legal loophole that allows landowners to conceal the price paid for Highland estates from the public register.

Andy Wightman, a land reform analyst, said the loophole meant the prices paid in more than £300m-worth of Highland property transactions were not disclosed on the register.