Stirling ‘offers best homes value’ of UK cities

The bank’s research claims to have found Stirling is a top performer when comparing house prices to wages, putting the cost of an average home in Falkirk’s next door neighbour at £192,326.

This is said to be more than four times local average earnings, and is below the overall average ratio in Scotland of 5.4 and the UK average of 7.5.

However the report only covers cities, and can’t be used to draw any conclusions about the affordability of homes in Falkirk, relative to other towns.

Meanwhile the average house price in Stirling is said to have increased by 41 per cent in the last five years, faster than any other Scottish city.

In 2013, the average house price was £136,036, rising to £192,326 in 2018.

At the same time the affordability of homes in Glasgow is said to have seen the steepest decline in the last five years (4.5

to 5.5 times average earnings).

Ricky Diggins, director at Bank of Scotland said: “Although we’ve seen house prices rise dramatically in Stirling and homes in Glasgow become less affordable over the past five years, Aberdeen has in fact seen the biggest improvement.

“With average earnings and house prices broadly on a par, it’s good news for homebuyers looking to live in one of the UK’s top 20 most affordable cities.”

Oxford is named as the least affordable city in the UK, with an average house price to earnings ratio of 12.6.