Buckhaven is the most affordable seaside town

Buckhaven on the Fife coast is the most affordable seaside town to buy a house, according to a new survey.

House prices in Buckhaven are, on average, 2.26 times that of local average annual earnings, according to the latest Bank of Scotland Seaside Towns Review.

Buckhaven is followed by Port Bannatyne, on the Isle of Bute, at 2.56 times local average earnings, and last year's most affordable, Girvan, in South Ayrshire, at 2.62.

Buckhaven is also the least expensive seaside town for buying a home with an average house price of 64,855 in 2010.

The next least expensive towns are Port Bannatyne with an average price of 73,351 and Girvan with an average price of 83,199.

St Andrews in Fife is again the least affordable seaside town where average house prices are 10.45 times local average earnings, followed by North Berwick, in East Lothian, at 8.67 times and Crail in Fife at 7.97.

North Berwick is the most expensive seaside town in Scotland with an average house price of 305,691 in 2010.

St Andrews is second in the ranking where the average price is 299,606, followed by Newburgh in Aberdeenshire at 268,297.

Newburgh also recorded the largest increase in house prices between 2005 and 2010. Average house prices in the seaside town on the north east coast increased by 104 per cent during the period to 268,287. The next largest gains were in Banff in Aberdeenshire at 84 per cent and Cruden Bay in Peterhead at 73 per cent.

Nitesh Patel, housing economist at Bank of Scotland, said: "Scotland's seaside towns have always been popular places to live, but they have perhaps become even more so in recent years. This is certainly true if we take house prices as an indicator of desirability."