IT was immortalised on film as the hang-out of one of Scotland's most iconic gang of friends.

But now it appears that Renton, Sick Boy Begbie and the rest of the characters at the heart of Trainspotting wouldn't be able to afford to live near the Volunteer arms, let alone pay for a pint.

In fact, they'd be hard-pressed to find one as the spit and sawdust pub on Leith Walk - dubbed "the Volley” by Begbie, played by Robert Carlyle - was turned in to a smart gin and whisky bar in 2014 in a £70,000 makeover as the gentrification of Leith gathered pace.

Once one of the Edinburgh's deprived areas, the area is now very different to the one portrayed in Irvine Welsh’s novel abut the lives of drug addicts in Edinburgh and the subsequent film, with new research showing that it has been made over thanks to an influx of young professionals and families.

As the middle classes have moved in and the coffee shops and delis have followed, house prices have risen by 205 per cent, from £59,902 on average in 1996 to £182,440 today, the Bank of Scotland found.

Indeed, choosing a Trainspotting postcode in the year the film was released would have been a solid property investment, with other locations featured in the iconic movie also undergoing a renaissance.

While the 1996 film featured some of Scotland's meaner streets, changes in the past two decades have seen them transformed into property hotspots.

It’s impossible to forget the infamous scene where Renton crawls out of the 'Worst Toilet in Scotland' in a Leith betting shop, but as this particular bookie was located on Muirhouse’s Pennywell Road and has long since disappeared.

While there were pleasant establishments within its EH4 postcode, a prospective buyer looking for a property there twenty years ago would have expected to pay an average of £86,281.

Nowadays property prices have increased 209 per cent - with the average price topping £266,748 in December 2016.

Away from the film's scenes in the capital, much of Trainspotting was actually filmed in Glasgow, with a disused cigarette factory providing the setting for almost two thirds of the action.

Rouken Glen Park in Thornliebank, East Renfrewshire, where Sick Boy, played by Jonny Lee Miller, illustrates his unifying theory of life to Ewan McGregor's Renton was also one of the many locations in and near Glasgow.

Prices here have undergone a 194 per cent increase, from an average of £78,799 in 1996 to £231,362 in December last year.

Volcano nightclub on Glasgow's Benalder Street, where main character Renton, played by Ewan McGregor, meets Diane, played by Kelly MacDonald, has been demolished but property prices in the G11 postcode have exploded in its absence. The bank found that in 1996 a property would have cost an average of £56,486 - in December 2016 it was £179,833.

However, it is in London - scene of a section of the film where Renton quits heroin and tries to live a normal life - where house prices have gone through the roof.

The flat that the main character tries to let in the capital is on the corner where Talgarth Road meets North End Road, and the cost of an average property here has soared by more than 430 per cent from £125,271 in December 1996 to £674,840 in 2016.

The Royal Eagle Hotel, on London's Craven Road, where Begbie smashes up the hotel room, is in The City of Westminster (W2), where property prices have rocketed 312% over the last 20 years, rising from £166,115 in 1996 to £683,699 on average in December last year.

Graham Blair, mortgage director at Bank of Scotland, said: "The trailer for Trainspotting 2 subtly highlights how much the world has changed since Trainspotting was released 20 years ago - John Menzies has disappeared from Edinburgh's Princes Street, trams are now a prominent city centre feature and Renton is married.

"If you had decided to choose a Trainspotting postcode back in 1996, you would have seen a solid boost in value since then.

"London, of course, has seen the biggest increase, as prices there have shot up in comparison to Scotland, however the 200 per cent plus increase that most of the Scottish locations saw is more than acceptable."

Ewan McGregor and most of the original cast have reunited with director Danny Boyle for T2 Trainspotting, which is released next week.