It’s official – Glasgow is one of the most affordable places in the UK to live.

New research from Lloyds Banking Group names the city the ninth most affordable in the United Kingdom – and second only to Stirling in Scotland.

Glasgow expert in property law Jatinder Chall of MacRae & Kaur believes the news is critical to the city’s economic future.

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Average UK house prices in cities have outpaced wage growth for five years in a row and are now more than seven times annual earnings.

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This ratio falls to 5.2 in Glasgow– making Scotland’s largest city a third more affordable than the average UK city.

Across the nation the ratio is only bettered by Scotland’s former capital Stirling, Bradford, Durham, Sunderland, Hereford, Lisburn and Londonderry.

This comes despite Glasgow house prices rising 22% over the past five years – £32,000 in cash terms – whilst wages rose just 7% in the same period.

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Stirling is named the UK’s most affordable city, with average property prices just 3.7 times average gross annual earnings.

The UK’s least affordable cities include Oxford, Winchester and Cambridge. Scotland’s next most affordable cities are Inverness and Dundee, where house price to earnings ratios are 5.5, and Perth, where they are 5.7.

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Jatinder Chall, heads the Property law team at MacRae & Kaur Solicitors.

She said:

“Glasgow isn’t just a great place to live, it’s a very affordable one – and ultimately that can only benefit our economy.

“Home affordability has been worsening for the past four years and nationally is now at its worst level since 2008, with city living in particular becoming increasingly expensive.

“That Glasgow is bucking that trend is very good news for our local economy as attracting and retaining skilled workers and modern businesses is critical to both the city and Scotland’s economic future.

“There’s plenty of evidence that our Glasgow is increasingly becoming a destination of choice for just these kinds of companies and professionals – and even this week our team have been talking to Londoners looking to relocate here.”

MacRae & Kaur are one of Glasgow’s leading commercial and residential property specialists, with clients ranging from private property owners to banks, high street retailers and multi-national corporations.

With 25 years experience the firm has successfully organised multi-million-pound developments throughout the UK and managed business expansion and movement of premises throughout Glasgow.