HOMEOWNERS in eight Scottish local authorities earn enough by March 4 to pay off their mortgage for the whole year, according to UK-wide research into "mortgage freedom" days.

People living in Renfrewshire and North Lanarkshire are paid enough in their first two salaries of the year to pay off the average annual mortgage costs in their council areas.

By February 28, homeowners in these local authorities are dubbed "mortgage free" - because their average earnings by this point are equivalent of the average annual mortgage repayments.

That is earlier than any other area of the UK.

Meanwhile, homeowners in West Dunbartonshire, Inverclyde, East Ayrshire, North Ayrshire, South Ayrshire, and the Western Isles are effectively "mortgage free" between March 1-4, much earlier than the UK average.

The figures have been compiled by Halifax to coincide with "mortgage freedom day" today, the day when the majority of Brits have earned enough after tax to pay off their mortgage for 2015.

Although merely symbolic since other living costs make this impossible to do in practical terms, the date on which "mortgage free" status occurs is used as a measure of an area's average income versus the affordability of owning a home there.

The date is worked out on the basis that the homeowner would have spent every penny of their take-home pay since January 1 on their mortgage, and that they purchased their home by borrowing 70 per cent of the property's value.

The April 18 date of "mortgage freedom day" this year compares to April 10 in 2014, suggesting a shift in the earnings to mortgage repayments ratio caused by house price growth and static wages.

According to the Halifax research, net annual incomes have fallen by £15 since last year while typical annual mortgage repayments have increased by £613 over the same period.

The average amount someone would need to have earned this year so far to pay off their mortgage for the whole of 2015 is £7,567.

The average UK house price is now £192,970, having increased by 8.1 per cent over the last year.

Craig McKinlay, a mortgage director at Halifax, said: "Our research shows that today, if people had put everything they'd earned since the start of the year towards their mortgage, the average home owner would be mortgage free for the remainder of the year."

In areas of London, where the average house price is £500,000, mortgage freedom day falls six months later than it does in parts of Scotland.

New borrowers in Renfrewshire and North Lanarkshire had the earliest mortgage freedom day this year, on February 28, followed by West Dunbartonshire on March 1 and Inverclyde - jointly with Larne in Northern Ireland - on March 2.

Residents of East Ayrshire hit "mortgage freedom" on March 3, followed by North Ayrshire, South Ayrshire and the Western Isles on March 4.

The average mortgage freedom day for people living across Scotland was March 22, compared to March 19 for Northern Ireland and April 13 in Wales.

Home owners living in Hammersmith and Fulham in London face the longest wait for mortgage freedom day.

They will typically face having to work until autumn, on September 15, until they have earned enough to cover the annual cost of their mortgage, according to the Halifax.