Banking giant claims town is suffering slump

Bankers claim Paisley is one of the worst places to sell a home in the UK.

Halifax says owners have been hammered after an average of £4,500 was wiped off the price of a property in the town.

But its findings fly in the face of figures from the Registers of Scotland, which say growth is up in the region.

Russell Galley, managing director at Halifax, maintained its database proved the area has been rocked by one of the biggest cash cuts in Britain.

He said: “The majority of towns in which house prices have dropped in the last year are situated within Scotland or Yorkshire and the Humber.

“A number of towns and cities have recorded significant rises in house prices over the past year, with all of the top 20 performers recording growth of at least double the national average.

“Unlike last year, the top performers are not exclusive to London and the South East, with the top spot now belonging to Cheltenham in the South West, and towns in East Anglia, East Midlands, North West, Wales and Yorkshire and the Humber also making the list.”

The Registers of Scotland revealed higher growth in house prices towards the end of last year.

Buddies witnessed a 1.6 per cent hike in October, helping add £1,857 to every family’s coffers.

Halifax says this has not been enough to mitigate falling prices, with the average cost of a home in the town standing at £123,665.

It says prices are down almost four per cent on last year — the third worse in the UK.

Halifax says homeowners south of the border are coining in huge sums, with the biggest hauls raked in around London.

The bank used information from its database to calculate its figures — revealing a growth in the British average, up 2.7 per cent in 2017.

But three quarters of the top performers are based around the capital and southern counties.

Janet Egdell, of Registers of Scotland, insisted prices in Paisley were up in October, compared to the same point in 2016.

She said: “Average prices in Scotland continued their upward trend in October with an increase of 2.8 per cent, when compared to October 2016.”

Cheltenham is the biggest house price winner in the UK over the last year, according to Halifax.

It saw an extra £36,000 added the cost of a home — a surge of 13 per cent.

Huddersfield, at 9.3 per cent; Nottingham, on 8.9 per cent ; Stockport; with 8.2 per cent; and Swansea, rivals in the race for the City of Culture crown, on 7.7 per cent, were the top performers outside London.

The greatest fall was in Perth, where prices fell 5.3 per cent to £180,687 — a loss of an average £10,126 per home.

Stoke- on-Trent, which also competed for the City of Culture title, rounded out the top three worst performing towns, down four per cent to £152,340 — a loss of £6,402 per property.

The majority of towns in which prices have dropped are situated within Scotland or Yorkshire Russell Galley