Our children can't afford to buy a house here now.

There is a Bank of Scotland report out this morning about how three coastal towns in Scotland have seen their house prices double in 10 years. The bank's researchers found that a number of coastal towns had seen "substantial" increases since 2005.  Of 59 coastal towns surveyed, 15 recorded price increases of at least 50% in that time.  Fraserburgh in Aberdeenshire experienced the biggest rise with a 109% jump from an average price of £63,540 in 2005 to £132,920 last year.  Lerwick in Shetland, and Peterhead, also in Aberdeenshire, recorded increases of 102%.  All interesting stuff that may have the good people of these towns rubbing their collective hands in glee.

Now I don’t know if you are like me and sometimes wonder exactly who benefits for the rise in house prices. Well, there is the obvious one set of people, children selling their parents’ house when they pass away. But beyond that, who benefits?

Take the Fraserburgh example.  You discover the value of your house has gone up.  So if you sell you will have a lot more money than you paid.  But unless you want to live in a tent or considerably down size, you won’t be able to buy a house in the town and have a wee bit left over because the value of all the other properties has also gone up.

So who does benefit?  I would suggest there are people who smile when the see the headline today.

But non smilers first. The people who want to get on the so called property ladder. They can't afford the higher prices.  And the next thing we will be hearing from these communities will be “our children can’t afford prices here, something has to be done”.

But on to the smilers.  Starting with Lenders. A higher price generally will mean you will have to borrow more.  That’s good business for banks and building societies.

Then there are the support services.  Estate agents.  If you do a percentage deal, your costs will go up.  Lawyers. Higher value, your costs will go up.

The government.  Yes, some houses can be outwith the taxation applied to most house purchases. But in general, the higher the price the more tax the government takes out of your pocket.  Oh yes, and more income from taxing the increased profits of these lenders and services.

So next time someone says, "magic, the value of my property has risen”, ask them who exactly will that benefit.  Cos it sure won't be them.