SCOTLAND’S most valuable location to live has been revealed after analysis showing its property has rocketed in worth in the past year.
New research shows Glasgow is a hotspot, with a total property value of £90.75 billion with the West End postcode of G12 the best place to be for growth in the city.
Zoopla made the findings after analysing property values in Britain’s 10 largest cities.
It found the total value of London’s homes is now over £1.5 trillion – more than twice the value of Britain’s next nine largest cities combined.
In London, the total value has increased by 1.54 per cent over the past 12 months – the slowest growth rate of any of the top 10 cities.
Sheffield had the highest annual growth rate at 5.63 per cent, followed by Glasgow at 5.38 per cent and Manchester at 4.49 per cent.
Bristol is the next most valuable city after London, with homes there worth an estimated £115.21bn, and Bristol is the only city in Britain apart from London where the total value of homes is more than £100bn.
But Glasgow is in third place, having also seen particularly strong growth in property values over the past year compared with the other major cities.
Lawrence Hall, a spokesman for Zoopla, said: “It comes as no surprise that London is significantly more valuable as a residential property market than any other British city. However, the data does show that, in comparison to cities further north and across the Border, the rate of growth in London has slowed.”
Zoopla also looked at the pockets in each city where total property values are particularly high.
Within London, the SW1 area, which includes Belgravia, Pimlico and Westminster, was identified as being the most valuable area of the capital.
Homes there are worth £54.57bn in total – nearly as much as the whole of Sheffield’s housing – according to Zoopla’s estimates.
In Glasgow, the most valuable areas in the city are Glasgow’s G12 area –including the West End, Cleveden and Dowanhill where the annual percentage growth in value was 7.18 per cent and the overall value £4.27bn.
Edinburgh’s most valuable address is EH4, including the Dean Village and Comely Bank – up 5.09 per cent – where the property value stands at £8.61bn.
It was also reported yesterday, in analysis from UK Finance – the finance and banking industry trade body, that the mortgage market has shown strong growth in Scotland.
First-time buyers and remortgaging levels are said to be at their highest for a decade, with 8,800 new first-time buyer mortgages completed in Scotland in the fourth quarter of last year. This is 3.5 per cent more than in the same quarter in the previous year.
The value of loans to first-time buyers – who are typically 29-years-old with an income of £35,000 – rose even higher, up almost 10 per cent to £1.01bn.
Meanwhile, a total of 9,100 new home mover mortgages were completed in the same period – 8.3 per cent higher than the same time in 2016. However, home movers tend to have an average age of 39 and a much higher salary of £51,000.
Paul Hilton, chief executive of SPC Scotland, said: “The good news for first-time buyers is that with more mortgage options available, it is increasingly possible to find one that is suited to their needs and affordability. With 95 per cent mortgages available, this means that there is also less demand on the amount of deposit required.
“With tax relief for first-time buyers on properties worth £175,000 or less, we hope this means that owning a home is not a dream but a reality for them.”
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