Scotland enjoys its own property boom

Scotland enjoys its own property boom

Some of the most depressed towns in Scotland provided the strongest growth in house prices this year, according to a survey by Britain's largest mortgage lender.

Halifax said Coatbridge and Alexandria, both within commuting distance of Glasgow, saw the average cost of a home jump 35% as Scotland registered nine of the 20 places in Britain with the biggest price increases during 2005.

Residents of Coatbridge, a former steel-making centre south of Glasgow where once "groups of blast furnaces on all sides might be imagined to be blazing volcanoes", must now pay £118,158 for a home compared with only £87,480 a year ago.

In Alexandria the average price of a home has jumped from £98,453 to £133,244. The town sits just below Loch Lomond and next to the Upper Clyde and for much of the century was best known for building submarines. Now it relies on light industries, pedestrianised shopping streets and its proximity to the world famous loch to attract residents. In Coatbridge, part of health secretary John Reid's constituency, a relatively new shopping centre and museums celebrating the town's golden age have given a boost.

On the east coast, soaring prices in Edinburgh have encouraged a desperate search for properties in the poorer districts of Fife. Glenrothes, Lochgelly and Leven all saw steep rises.

Lochgelly, despite a rise of 31% in house prices this year, remains an extremely cheap place to buy a home. Halifax.....continued below

Advertisement starts

---

---

Advertisement ends

said in its report that the former mining town was the most affordable place in the UK with the average home costing £81,131.

Prices in Lochgelly contrast with London's commuter belt where towns such as Gerrards Cross and Weybridge have prospered. The proximity to top-rated schools, a frequent train link to London, easy access to Oxfordshire countryside and plenty of solid, detached homes has made Gerrards Cross a consistent winner in the Halifax charts. A home in the town now costs £649,239 on average while in leafy Weybridge houses fetch an average of £560,741.

House price inflation has, however, been restricted for the past 18 months in both places, as it has across most of London and the south-east after most buyers reached limits of affordability.

The only place in England to make the top 10 towns was Wednesbury in the West Midlands. Situated next to the M6 motorway near Birmingham and Sandwell, the town was sidestepped by homebuyers before a number of housing developments and retail parks attracted families.

Colin Kemp, managing director of Halifax Estate Agents, said: "For the third year running, the 20 towns recording the biggest house price increases are all outside the south-east. There is a remarkable consistency among the most expensive towns with the same places again featuring at the top of the table. They are an exclusive club whose membership rarely changes."

He warned that first-time buyers would find it harder next year to find a town where prices were cheap enough for some on the average wage of £24,000 to buy a home.

"There has been a pronounced decline in the number of towns where the average price is below £100,000 in the past few years. There are now only 11 towns below this benchmark compared with 130 in 2003. We predict that there will be only a handful of towns with an average price under £100,000 by the end of 2006," he said.