SCOTLAND’S cheapest commuter towns where you could save as much as £1,700 a year have been revealed.
Lofty rent costs in Edinburgh and Glasgow often force people to look elsewhere for accommodation.
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Livingston is a popular commuter town for those who work in Edinburgh Credit: Andrew Barr
Monthly lease fees are usually much cheaper outside of cities and can save you thousands of pounds a year.
Some commuter towns are seeing big jumps in the number of people flocking to them.
Outside of Glasgow, demand for the nearby town of Motherwell has risen by a third, according to analysis by the flat share site SpareRoom of the UK’s most popular cities and towns among flat sharers.
Choosing to stay in the North Lanarkshire town could save you £1,180 a year, once you’ve factored in commuting costs of approximately £907.20 a year.
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Motherwell has handy commuter links, with three train stations and the M74 and M8 close by.
The post-industrial town has an average house price of £218,526, compared to £277,495 in Glasgow.
Motherwell’s average room rental price of £509 per month was also found to be the cheapest in Scotland among the commuter towns analysed.
Elsewhere, moving to Livingston, which is just a 24-minute commute from Edinburgh, would save you a huge £1,726 a year – even with travel costs factored in.
You’d pay just £580 a month in rent on average, compared with £813 in Edinburgh – a saving of £233 a month, or £2,796 a year.
Your yearly travel into the city three days a week would set you back about £1,070 a, still leaving you with plenty of savings.
If you were to buy the average house price in Livingston is £290,364, according to Lloyds Banking group.
The area is much more affordable than the capital, where it is £352,996.
Livingston is the biggest town in West Lothian and is known for its good shopping, including the Livingston Designer Outlet.
Kilmarnock, around half an hour from Glasgow, was found to have the highest priced rooms among the Scottish commuter towns analysed, with average rents costing £588 per month.
Matt Hutchinson, director of SpareRoom, said: “Given how high rents are now compared to where they were five years ago, people are faced with no choice but to chase affordability.
“When even flatsharers are turning away from major cities to surrounding towns, you know there’s a huge problem with affordability.
“But it’s really important to weigh up the cost of a longer commute versus the potential savings on rent before making a move.”
Motherwell is an affordable town for people who work in Glasgow Credit: Alamy