High-land Rise

The cost of buying a home in Scotland and Wales is rising rapidly, new figures have shown, but it is still cheaper than purchasing a property in the south-east. Merthyr Tydfil has experienced the greatest regional house price growth in the past five years, according to Halifax's index, with the average property worth 175 per cent more now than it was in 2001. The next five best-performing counties were also in Wales, as was more than half of the entire top 20, while Scotland also featured six times and County Durham was the only English region to appear.