CHANGING house prices in Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire are making homes more affordable for local people, according to new figures.

The median take-home salary of a resident in Renfrewshire was more than £48,000 greater over 2016 and 2017 than the change in property price because homes in that area saw their values fall, figures released by the Halifax show.

In East Renfrewshire, the difference between the two was just £18,000, much smaller due to the huge increase in house prices in the area.

It was announced earlier this year that the average cost of a home in East Renfrewshire is now Scotland’s second largest, overtaking Edinburgh with a median of £256,966, up by £37,000.

However, East Renfrewshire residents were also the best paid in 2016 and 2017.

In Renfrewshire, prices dipped by more than £1,000 to £146,033 over the two-year period, with average post-tax incomes of just under £24,000 each year.

As a result, both areas have low ‘affordability index’ scores, with Renfrewshire now one of the most attractive areas in Scotland for first-time buyers.

Both demonstrate the affordability of their local area, with figures showing workers’ homes are rising in price at a much slower rate than elsewhere in the UK.

Halifax compared rising property values against people’s average take-home earnings across the two-year period of 2016 and 2017.

Russell Galley, managing director at Halifax, said: “Over the past two years, we have seen house price growth and earnings converge at a national level, leading to a drop in the total number of areas where the average house price rise is greater than owners’ take-home earnings.”

While East Renfrewshire represents the smallest variation between house price increases and take-home pay in Scotland, Renfrewshire has the fifth largest variation of Scotland’s local authorities.

Scotland as a whole saw take-home pay outstrip property price increases by nearly £40,000 since the start of 2016, with average prices across the nation now £177,161.

The proportion of areas where house prices are outpacing earnings has fallen, from 31 per cent in 2016 to 18% in 2017, Halifax said.