Holiday letting in the Scottish Highlands

The Highland Council area is the Scotland most visitors picture: Loch Ness and Inverness, Skye and the west coast, the North Coast 500, Glencoe and Fort William, and the Cairngorms around Aviemore. Guests come for touring holidays, walking, skiing and wildlife, and remote cottages with a view often matter more to them than proximity to a town. The peak is summer, but the Cairngorms and Fort William have winter and shoulder-season trade of their own.

One control area, more proposed

Every short let in Highland needs a council licence. Planning is where geography matters. Badenoch and Strathspey, the area around Aviemore, Kingussie, Newtonmore and Grantown-on-Spey, became a short-term let control area on 4 March 2024: there, using a whole home that is not your main residence as a short let needs planning permission. Highland Council consulted between May and June 2026 on two more areas, the City of Inverness and a Highland Rural zone. Until any designation is confirmed, the rest of the region is assessed case by case for material change of use, but a buyer should check whether the property falls inside a proposed boundary.

Council tax: a sharp change in 2026

From 1 April 2026 Highland charges second homes three times the standard council tax, a 200% premium. That matters for owners who use a cottage themselves and let it occasionally. A property genuinely run as a business, available for 140 nights and let for 70 in the financial year, can instead be entered on the valuation roll for non-domestic rates, provided you send the assessor evidence, usually by late May after the year ends. Missing the letting threshold sends the property back to council tax, now at a much higher cost.

Levy and practicalities

• Highland is consulting on a visitor levy; nothing is payable yet.
• Licence conditions include fire risk assessment, gas and electrical checks, a Legionella assessment (important for private water supplies) and insurance.
• Cleaning and maintenance cover is the real operational constraint in remote areas; secure it before taking bookings.

Our advice

Outside Badenoch and Strathspey, a well-run licensed property remains viable, but plan it as a business: target the letting threshold, document every night, and avoid the high premium that follows occasional use. Tell us where your property is; we study every request and tell you honestly whether and how we can help.