Buckhaven named Scotland's most affordable seaside town

The bank says seaside locations are becoming increasingly popular

A town on the east coast of Fife has been identified as Scotland's most affordable seaside location by the Bank of Scotland.

The bank's Seaside Towns Review measured house prices against local earnings.

It found that Buckhaven had the lowest average house price, at £64,855.

Its house price to earnings ratio was 2.26, compared with 10.45 in the least affordable town, St Andrews. Homes there cost an average of £299,606.

Seaside towns which ranked highly in terms of affordability included Port Bannatyne, Millport and Invergordon.

The least affordable included North Berwick, Newport-on-Tay and Newburgh in Aberdeenshire.

House prices increased by 32% in Scottish seaside towns between 2005 and 2010, exceeding the 28% rise for Scotland as a whole.

Nitesh Patel, housing economist at Bank of Scotland, said: "Scotland's seaside towns have always been popular places to live, but they have perhaps become even more so in recent years.

"This is certainly true if we take house prices as an indicator of desirability.

"Over the past five years, the average house price in Scottish seaside towns has risen at a faster rate than for all properties in Scotland."