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More Americans appear to be dreaming of Scotland — not just as visitors but as prospective homeowners, according to a UK property portal.
Rightmove revealed a 19% increase in enquiries from the US about buying property in the UK since the start of 2025 compared to the same period — the highest pace since 2017.
Some 28% of US enquiries have been about Scotland — an area closely associated with President Donald Trump. That's slightly more than the proportion asking about homes in London (26%).
Rightmove did not reveal the number of queries it had received and noted that only a small percentage of all UK enquiries came from the US.
Colleen Babcock of Rightmove said that Trump's tariffs had led to "more economic uncertainty globally, and we're starting to see some of the effects of this on the UK property market — whether it's because the UK is seen as a more stable investment opportunity, or whether some buyers are considering a permanent move across the Atlantic."
Trump has long emphasized his Scottish roots. His mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, was born in a village called Tong, near Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis.
In 2006, he Trump strengthened his Scottish connection by purchasing a championship golf resort in Aberdeenshire, later opening the Trump International Gold Links. He then acquired another course in Turnberry.
Edinburgh's castle, great food, and Arthurs Walk, which were featured in the Netflix drama "One Day" have helped raise the profile of the Scottish capital.
Rising interest in Edinburgh could also reflect its lower property prices than central London, Rightmove said.
Glasgow as well as other Scottish regions including Argyll and Bute, and Fife are among those of interest to potential US buyers along with the Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea areas in London.
Glynn Gibb, regional director at real estate agent John D Wood & Co, said, "We're seeing a number of politically motivated relocations —Americans seeking greater stability abroad. There's a noticeable trend of high-net-worth individuals looking to move capital into what they see as a safe and stable market."
Gibb added: "We expect activity to build in the coming months … as more buyers make lifestyle and financial decisions shaped by the political climate in the US."
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You wouldn't steal a car, right? So you shouldn't pirate a movie, either.
That was the gist of the infamous "You Wouldn't Steal a Car" anti-piracy campaign from the Motion Picture Association of America during the mid-2000s. But questions are now being asked about just how carefully the MPAA followed its own anti-piracy principles when designing the campaign. Specifically: Did the MPAA rip off a key font?
The answer to that question is, like many matters involving typefaces, fonts, and copyright, somewhat complicated.
© Aurich Lawson
Focus Features
Following the lackluster box office performance of his latest mid-budget spy thriller, "Black Bag," Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh is contemplating his next move.
The director behind acclaimed films like "Traffic," "Erin Brockovich," "Out of Sight," and the "Ocean's Eleven" franchise has made nearly every type of movie imaginable, but he's always felt most comfortable doing a modestly budgeted drama. But the performance of "Black Bag," which brought in $37 million on a $44 million budget, has the filmmaker reconsidering how he fits into today's moviemaking landscape.
"The people we needed to come out didn't come out," Soderbergh told Business Insider of the "Black Bag" box office numbers. "And unfortunately, it's impossible to really know why."
Focus Features
"My concern is that the rest of the industry looks at that result and just goes, 'This is why we don't make movies in that budget range for that audience, because they don't show up,'" he continued. "And that's unfortunate, because that's the kind of movie I've made my whole career. That middle ground, which we all don't want to admit is disappearing, seems to be really disappearing."
The fact that a sexy spy thriller starring Cate Blanchett, Michael Fassbender, and Pierce Brosnan that's Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes couldn't pull in an audience is particularly confounding to Soderbergh.
"I mean, it's the best-reviewed movie I've ever made in my career, and we've got six beautiful people in it, and they all did every piece of publicity that we asked them to do, and this is the result," he said. "So it's frustrating."
Asked if he would ever return to making epic movies like 2008's "Che," his two-film biopic starring Benicio del Toro as the revolutionary Che Guevara, Soderbergh wasn't against it, but he had one caveat.
IFC Films
"It's really got to be something that deserves that kind of treatment and doesn't feel like Oscar bait," he said.
Soderbergh said he currently has nothing in the works that he would characterize as an epic and explained why.
"It does require an aspect of the grandiosity gene; you've got to think about yourself a certain way to want to go out and do those things. That is not my default mode," he said. "I have to work myself up to that because I don't have that kind of sense of my place."
Still, he enjoys making epic films when it's the right move. It even led to the creation of one of his most beloved television series.
"If I hadn't made 'Che,' I don't think I would have made 'The Knick,'" which I think is the last epic thing that I've done," Soderbergh said of his acclaimed 2014 Cinemax series starring Clive Owen as a surgeon pushing the boundaries of medicine in 1900s New York.
"'Che' was good for me in that sense. But knowing what goes into that, it has got to be something that I feel really electrified by, and those are just hard to come by," he continued. "Then you've got to cast Timothée Chalamet."
"Black Bag" will be available to stream on Peacock starting May 2.
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