Thirty-minute commute 'saves up to £86,000 on house prices'

Commuters were typically better off even when annual travel costs were taken into account

Living 30 minutes outside of Scotland's largest cities could save commuters up to £86,000 in house prices, according to the Bank of Scotland (BoS).

Properties half an hour outside of Edinburgh were £86,371 cheaper on average while equivalent homes outside of Glasgow were £22,000 cheaper.

BoS said commuters were typically better off even after travel costs of £1,700 were taken into account.

However, in Aberdeen a commute of an hour was needed to make the savings.

Commuters there would have to overcome average city prices of £195,000, with property prices in towns such as Inverurie and Insch almost £40,000 above that figure.

'Deciding factors'

House prices in Edinburgh commuter towns, such as Dunbar and Livingston, were £156,829 on average, compared with £243,200 in the capital.

In towns near Glasgow, such as Greenock and Motherwell, average prices reached £148,614 compared with almost £171,000 in the city.

Living 30 minutes outside Glasgow could save £22,000

Graham Blair, mortgages director at Bank of Scotland, said: "Distance from work is often one of the deciding factors for purchasing a home.

"It is generally true that a 30-minute commute can provide a large financial saving in terms of lower house prices.

"This is the case with most towns surrounding Edinburgh and Glasgow, but not Aberdeen, where you need to commute around an hour to benefit from lower house prices.

"A major consideration for commuting to leading cities such as these is that the typically higher income that can be earned tends to go much further in surrounding towns."