Edinburgh near top of UK property ladder

Edinburgh is among most expensive, but Scots towns make up half of top 10 cheapest places to buy. Picture: Phil Wilkinson

Homes in the Scottish capital are pricier per square metre than in any other town or city in the rest of the UK apart from  Altrincham in Greater Manchester, with an average price of £2,214 per sq m.

Aberdeen also makes the top ten, coming in fifth with an average price of £2,125 per sq m.

Meanwhile, Scottish towns make up five of the ten cheapest places to buy property in Britain, according to the study from the Halifax bank.

Wishaw in Lanarkshire is the cheapest Scottish town in terms of the price of property per square metre, ranked third on the UK-wide list compiled by Halifax – while Lanark, Blyth, Greenock and Airdrie also feature as having some of the lowest property prices in the UK. Property in Wishaw has an average price of £925 per sq m.

This stands in stark contrast to the UK’s most expensive  borough, Kensington & Chelsea, which has an average price of £10,854 per sqm and also has the highest average house price in Great Britain at £857,225.

The top 20 most expensive areas in Britain are all London boroughs, while the 48 most  expensive generally are all located in London and the South East.

Craig McKinlay, mortgages director at Halifax, said: “House price per square metre is a useful measure for house price comparison because it helps to adjust for differences in the size and type of properties between locations.

“While there are areas in central London that are more expensive than anywhere else in the country, there are notable pockets outside the south-east where property also has a high price per square metre. Many of those areas experiencing the strongest increases over the past few years are those with the highest price per square metre.”

Overall, Scotland has seen a 5 per cent fall in the price of property per square metre to £1,411, while nationally, house prices per square metre have risen by 13 per cent since 2009.

Stanley in County Durham in the north-east of England has the lowest average price of all the towns surveyed in Great Britain, at £818 per sqm.

Robert Carroll, owner of MOV8 Real Estate in Edinburgh, said the capital is “unique” in terms of its compact city centre, pushing prices higher.

“There are a lot of flats in  Edinburgh which means space is at a premium because it is a compact, smaller city. Therefore, it is not really surprising that the prices are so high per square metre,” he said.

“In rural areas, the further you get away from a capital centre, the cheaper it gets.”

He added: “In Edinburgh, everything is within five or six miles of the city centre, whereas in Glasgow, where prices are comparatively lower, there are a lot of suburbs and the city stretches a good seven or eight miles from the centre.

“People in Edinburgh seem to enjoy the convenience of being able to live a step closer to work and will pay accordingly.”