We do like to buy beside the seaside
House prices in coastal towns up 25% in decade
‘Demand for rooms with a sea view’
With its fabulous beaches and golf courses only a short commute from the city, it is little wonder it has emerged as Scotland’s most expensive seaside town for the second year in a row.
And with an average price of £314,435, deep pockets are needed to buy a house in North Berwick, East Lothian – beating even Fife’s home of golf, St Andrews, where the average cost is a little over £300,000.
But prices in both towns are a fraction of what househunters pay in Sandbanks in Dorset, the UK’s dearest seaside resort.
there, according to the annual study by halifax, an average of £664,051 changes hands for a property.
Across the board over the last decade the average house price in British seaside towns has increased by 25 per cent from £181,060 in 2007 to £226,916 in 2017.
But seaside living starts at less than a third of that amount in Scotland, which is home to nine out of the UK’s ten least expensive coastal towns.
Cheapest of all is Port Bannatyne on the isle of Bute, with an average house price of only £71,550, while the Ayrshire towns of Girvan, Saltcoats, irvine and Ardrossan also feature in the bargain list. Scottish towns also account for four of the ten biggest average house price increases in the last decade.
topping the list is Fraserburgh, where the average price of £136,889 is 95 per cent higher than a decade ago. Lerwick in Shetland has seen a 77 per cent increase to £160,689, inverbervie in Aberdeenshire a 62 per cent rise to £201,837 and in Macduff, also in Aberdeenshire, prices have gone up 53 per cent to £130,804.
halifax housing economist Martin Ellis said: ‘Seaside towns are extremely popular places to live, offering sought-after views and desirable weather. Being by the seaside does come at a price – with the marked increase in house prices reflecting the demand for rooms with a sea view.’
he added: ‘the strongest-performing coastal towns in terms of growth have been in Scotland, where property prices on the Aberdeenshire coastline have been helped by the oil industry more than the sunshine.’
Nine of the ten most expensive seaside towns are on the South Coast of England. For the second year running Sandbanks in Poole has claimed top spot as the most expensive coastal town, where the average price of a home is £664,051.
the tiny peninsula near Bournemouth is home to some of the most expensive property in the UK.
Wealthy residents include football figures harry Redknapp, Graeme Souness and tony Pulis, and celebrity interior designer Celia Sawyer.
A number of three to five bedroom detached properties are currently being advertised for £6.5million.
in second place is Salcombe in Devon, where average prices have hit £617,743.