Is Glasgow a better buy-to-let than Edinburgh in 2026?

On the real citywide numbers, yes, for income specifically. Glasgow's average property (£194,000, ONS, July 2026 provisional) against its average rent (£1,155 a month, Citylets/ESPC Scottish Rental Report, Q1 2026) works out at a 7.1% gross yield. Edinburgh's much higher average price (£304,000) against a higher rent (£1,506 a month) only clears 5.9%, because the price has grown faster than the rent. After Section 24, a higher-rate taxpayer's cash flow is £143 a month better in Glasgow, and the upfront Land and Buildings Transaction Tax bill is roughly £12,620 lower. Edinburgh still wins on capital growth, up 4.0% annually against Glasgow's 2.6%, so the honest answer depends on whether you're buying for income or for growth. If it's income, run your own numbers before assuming the capital's reputation is worth the extra outlay.

Why is Glasgow's marketed 10.8% buy-to-let yield misleading?

It's a real figure, but it's the single highest-yielding postcode in the city, not a citywide average. PropertyInvestmentsUK's own table (checked 26 September 2026) puts G2, in the city centre, at 10.8%, with its seven highest-yielding postcodes ranging from 7.6% to 10.8% on asking prices between £122,091 and £180,134. Run the same maths on Glasgow's actual average price (£194,000, ONS, July 2026) and average rent (£1,155 a month, Citylets, Q1 2026) and the citywide reality is 7.1%, a genuinely different number from the headline, though still a solid yield in national terms. Treat any single-postcode yield claim as a starting point for research, not a citywide promise, and check the specific street's rent before you commit capital to it.

How does LBTT and the Additional Dwelling Supplement affect buying a second home in Scotland?

Scotland charges Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) instead of Stamp Duty, at 0% up to £145,000, 2% up to £250,000, 5% up to £325,000, 10% up to £750,000 and 12% above that for 2026-27, plus an 8% Additional Dwelling Supplement (ADS) on the whole price for any second property, a rate confirmed frozen through 2026-27. On a £194,000 Glasgow purchase, that comes to roughly £16,500 in total. On a £304,000 Edinburgh purchase, which crosses into the 5% band as well as paying ADS on a larger price, it comes to roughly £29,120, a gap of about £12,620 for a comparable buy-to-let purchase. Factor that upfront gap into your return calculation, not just the ongoing yield, because it changes how long either purchase takes to pay for itself.

Does Section 24 apply the same way in Scotland as in England?

Yes. Section 24, which stopped landlords deducting mortgage interest as a business expense and replaced it with a 20% tax credit instead, is a UK-wide income tax rule and applies identically whether the property is in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester or London. What differs is the income tax rate charged on what's left, which depends on the landlord's own tax residence rather than the property's location. A landlord living in England, Wales or Northern Ireland pays rUK rates, including the 40% higher rate used in this article's calculations, on rental profit from a Scottish property. Only a Scottish-resident landlord pays Scotland's own income tax bands, including a 42% higher rate from £43,663 for 2026-27. Buying in Scotland doesn't change your own tax residence, so run the numbers using the rate you actually pay, not the property's postcode.

Glasgow's 7.1% yield beats Edinburgh's 5.9% by £143 a month

You've stopped trusting a city-wide yield ranking that leads with its single best postcode, because by now you've checked enough of them to know the trick. So when Glasgow gets pitched to landlords on the strength of one postcode claiming a 10.8% yield, the sensible move is to check what the city as a whole actually pays, not where the marketing points. And once you do that, the far more useful comparison isn't Glasgow against the sales pitch. It's Glasgow against the Scottish city usually assumed to be the safer, more prestigious buy: Edinburgh.

Run the real numbers at each city's own average price and rent, and Glasgow's genuine citywide yield of 7.1% beats Edinburgh's 5.9%, and for a higher-rate taxpayer that gap is worth £143 a month after Section 24, plus roughly £12,620 less upfront tax to pay for the privilege.

The marketed 10.8% is one postcode. The city pays 7.1%.

PropertyInvestmentsUK's Glasgow buy-to-let guide (checked 26 September 2026) puts its top-yielding postcode, G2 in the city centre, at 10.8%, with the seven highest-yielding postcodes it tracks ranging from 7.6% to 10.8% on asking prices between £122,091 and £180,134. That's a real figure for a real postcode, not an invented number, but it isn't the city. Glasgow's actual average house price was £194,000 in July 2026 (provisional), up 2.6% on £189,000 a year earlier (ONS house price data). Set that against Glasgow's average rent of £1,155 a month, up 0.4% annually (Citylets/ESPC Scottish Rental Report, Q1 2026), and the citywide gross yield comes to 7.1%, a genuinely different number from the headline, if still a strong one against most of England.

So if you've been eyeing that 10.8% figure as a city-wide promise, treat it instead as this year's best-performing street, worth investigating specifically rather than assuming it describes the average purchase you're actually likely to make.

Edinburgh's reputation costs more than it earns

Edinburgh is usually where Scottish property money is assumed to be safest, and on capital growth that's still true: its average house price reached £304,000 in July 2026 (provisional), up 4.0% on £292,000 a year earlier, ahead of the 2.3% average across Scotland over the same period (ONS). But rental income tells a different story. Average rent in Edinburgh was £1,506 a month in the first quarter of 2026, flat year-on-year (Citylets/ESPC Scottish Rental Report, Q1 2026). Against a price that's grown a full 1.4 percentage points faster than Glasgow's this year, that gives a gross yield of just 5.9%, a full 1.2 percentage points below Glasgow's citywide figure, despite Edinburgh's higher rent in cash terms.

So if you've been assuming the capital automatically makes the stronger buy-to-let case because it's the more expensive, more prestigious city, the rent hasn't kept pace with the price closely enough to back that up.

What buying at the average actually costs

At 75% loan-to-value and the current average buy-to-let fixed rate of 5.47% (Moneyfacts, via Which?, September 2026, unchanged since August), a Glasgow purchase at the city average needs a £48,500 deposit against a £145,500 loan. An Edinburgh purchase needs £76,000 down against a £228,000 loan, well over 50% more capital tied up for the equivalent purchase. That's before comparing either city with the Scottish local authorities this site checked last month: Renfrewshire and West Dunbartonshire's 9.9% yields, built on purchase prices under £70,000, sit well below either city's entry cost, and are worth reading alongside this comparison if raw yield matters more to you than city-centre demand and liquidity.

So the capital required to get into Edinburgh isn't just a bigger number, it's a meaningfully different commitment of cash that has to earn its keep for longer before you'd consider redeploying it elsewhere.

The cash flow, before tax

Strip out a 12% management fee, a 5% maintenance reserve, landlord buildings insurance of roughly £312 a year (ABI Premium Tracker), and a one-month annual void allowance, and Glasgow's purchase runs at roughly £173 a month positive before tax. Edinburgh, on the same assumptions, clears only about £59 a month, because its larger mortgage interest bill (roughly £1,039 a month against Glasgow's £663) eats up most of the extra rent it collects.

So even before Section 24 enters the picture, Glasgow is carrying roughly three times the monthly buffer that Edinburgh is, and that buffer is what actually decides whether a void month or a repair bill tips a purchase into the red.

Section 24 turns Edinburgh's margin negative. Glasgow barely holds on.

Because mortgage interest can no longer be deducted as a business expense, a landlord pays income tax on rental profit calculated before interest relief, then claims a 20% credit against the interest actually paid. On the Glasgow purchase, that leaves a higher-rate (40%) taxpayer's cash flow at roughly £29 a month negative, a real if modest loss, while a basic-rate (20%) taxpayer keeps roughly £139 a month. Edinburgh's larger profit and larger interest bill produce a much sharper result: a higher-rate taxpayer's cash flow falls to roughly £172 a month negative, and even a basic-rate taxpayer is left with only about £47 a month. Check your own portfolio's numbers with our Section 24 tax calculator before assuming either result applies to a property you already own.

So for a higher-rate taxpayer specifically, the same tax rule leaves Glasgow within touching distance of break-even and pushes Edinburgh well past it, a gap of roughly £143 a month, or £1,723 a year, between two purchases made at each city's own average price.

LBTT and the Additional Dwelling Supplement widen the gap before the first month's rent

Scotland charges Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) rather than Stamp Duty, at 0% up to £145,000, 2% up to £250,000, 5% up to £325,000, 10% up to £750,000 and 12% above that for 2026-27, plus an 8% Additional Dwelling Supplement (ADS) on the full price of any second property, a rate confirmed frozen through 2026-27. Glasgow's average purchase stays inside the 2% band above the nil-rate threshold, so the total bill, including ADS, comes to roughly £16,500. Edinburgh's higher average price crosses into the 5% band as well, and pays ADS on a much larger sum, taking its total bill to roughly £29,120, a gap of about £12,620 in upfront tax alone. England's equivalent surcharge works differently again, as our Stamp Duty explained guide sets out, so don't assume the England-wide thresholds apply north of the border.

So that upfront gap alone is worth more than seven years of the ongoing higher-rate cash-flow difference between the two cities, money you'd otherwise have redeployed rather than handed to the Scottish Government before collecting a single month's rent.

The maths, in one place:

Glasgow: average price £194,000 · deposit/loan (75% LTV) £48,500/£145,500 · average rent £1,155/month · gross yield 7.1% · cash flow before tax +£173/month · higher-rate (40%) after Section 24 −£29/month · basic-rate (20%) +£139/month · LBTT + 8% ADS ≈£16,500
Edinburgh: average price £304,000 · deposit/loan £76,000/£228,000 · average rent £1,506/month · gross yield 5.9% · cash flow before tax +£59/month · higher-rate −£172/month · basic-rate +£47/month · LBTT + 8% ADS ≈£29,120
Buy-to-let rate assumed: 5.47% interest-only (Moneyfacts, via Which?, September 2026). Higher-rate gap, Glasgow vs Edinburgh: £143/month (£1,723/year). Upfront tax gap: ≈£12,620.

What this means for you

The maths points toward Glasgow as the stronger income purchase between the two, on the numbers each city's own average price and rent actually support today, not the number either city's marketing leads with. Frankly, if you're weighing new capital between Scotland's two biggest cities purely for rental income and you pay tax at the higher rate, Edinburgh's reputation isn't worth the extra £76,000 of deposit and loan it demands, nor the extra £12,620 in upfront tax, for a purchase that then runs at a bigger monthly loss than Glasgow's once Section 24 is applied. Most investors who run this calculation properly end up treating Edinburgh as the growth play and Glasgow, or the smaller Scottish local authorities already checked on this site, as the income play, rather than assuming one city can be both. That said, don't buy at either city's average blind: verify the actual rent and condition on the specific street with our buy-to-let yield calculator, because the gap between a city average and a genuinely good street, in either direction, is exactly what the marketed 10.8% postcode figure shows can happen.