Eastern towns lead the way in decade of rising seaside house prices

Three seaside towns in Scotland have recorded at least a doubling in house prices since 2005, according to research from Bank of Scotland.

The Aberdeenshire fishing town of Fraserburgh has experienced the biggest rise with a 109 per cent increase from an average price of £63,540 in 2005 to £132,920 in 2014.

Lerwick, the main port of the Shetland Islands, (102 per cent) and Peterhead, also in Aberdeenshire (102 per cent) have also doubled their house prices since 2005.

Meanwhile, a further 15 coastal towns – out of a total of 59 surveyed by the bank – recorded price increases of at least 50 per cent over the past decade.

Partly due to the substantial rises in the top performing towns, the average house price in Scotland’s seaside towns rose by 38 per cent between 2005 and 2014; exceeding the 31 per cent increase for Great Britain as a whole.

Newtonhill in Aberdeenshire saw the largest house price increase over the last year, going from £199,902 in 2013 to £240,899 in 2014 (21 per cent). Dalgety Bay in Fife (16 per cent) and Macduff in Aberdeenshire (15 per cent) were the other top performers.

The survey also revealed an east-west divide in house prices in Scottish seaside towns, with nine of the ten most expensive seaside towns being located on the eastern coastline.

The Fife university town of St Andrews is Scotland’s most expensive seaside town with an average house price of £294,586.

North Berwick is the second most expensive (£294,076), followed by the Abderdeenshire towns of Stonehaven (£243,741) and Newtonhill (£240,899).

All of the ten least expensive seaside towns are in western Scotland.

Port Bannatyne, on the Isle of Bute, is the most inexpensive in Scotland with an average price of £73,539.

All ten least expensive towns have an average price below £100,000.

Nitesh Patel, housing economist at Bank of Scotland, said: “Seaside towns are highly popular places to live in Scotland as they offer a unique lifestyle with a typically high quality of life and a healthy environment. A number of seaside towns have recorded substantial house price increases over the past decade, predominately on the east coast. The boom in the Scottish oil sector during the period also provided a boost to house prices, particularly in several towns along the Aberdeenshire coastline. Scottish seaside town house prices have done particularly well over the last ten years, outperforming the average for Great Britain as a whole.”