Edinburgh ranked top in UK housing index

If you love living in Scotland's capital city then you're not alone as Edinburgh has been found to be the best place to live in the UK

Location specialist CACI collected data and crunched numbers to find out which location would come out on top, and Edinburgh beat Crewe to take first place.

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The hottest UK locations tend to be outside of London and the South East and are usually places where property is affordable.

Factors taken into consideration by CACI include affordability, employment levels and internet connectivity.

Speaking to Property Week, John Platt, principal consultant in CACI’s property consultancy group explains:

“There are 12 areas from the North West and 11 from Scotland in the top 50 and these are the most affordable regions in the UK to live"

“We define ‘affordability’ as the relationship between house price and household income.

"The average property in the UK costs 7.4 times the average household income. In some areas of Scotland and the North East, this can be as low as three times.

"To put that into context, the London average is 12 times and in the least affordable place to live in the UK, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, it is 40 times.”

“It has resulted in some of the larger cities outside the south, such as Aberdeen, Leeds, Glasgow, Cardiff and York, climbing the ranking significantly,” explains Platt.

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“These cities are home to the demographic groups that are more likely to move house frequently: young, relatively affluent ‘career climbers’ and people ‘starting out’ who tend to socially rent with friends.”

Picture: an Edinburgh flat for sale, Zoopla

Anyone paying over the odds for rent, especially in places like London, are more likely to move and go somewhere much more affordable.

Although there are other factors that come in to consideration as Hamilton near Glasgow is the only location in the top ten that scored an A grade for affordability.

“This goes to show that an attractive place to live is not always driven by price,” says Platt. “If the offer in the area is right then people will still want to live in these desirable locations.”

Other Scottish locations that made it into the top 30 are Aberdeen at number five, Hamilton at number nine, Inverurie at 11, Glasgow at 15, Perth at 17, Kirkcaldy at 21 and Paisley at 25.