With its medieval buildings, golden sands and world-class golf, it�s no wonder people want to live in St Andrews � but life in Fife comes with a catch.

With its medieval buildings, golden sands and world-class golf, it's no wonder people want to live in St Andrews - but life in Fife comes with a catch.

The ancient university town has today been named as the most expensive property market of any seaside resort on Scotland's coast, with typical prices more than 10 times average local earnings.

A report from the Bank of Scotland shows that house prices in the Fife resort averaged £285,730 in the first quarter of 2009, nearly double the national figure of £154,441.

Despite the recent slump, the surging property market during the last five years has seen St Andrews retain its position as one of the most prestigious housing markets anywhere in Europe.

The East Neuk town saw off competition from several other picturesque Scottish locations, edging North Berwick and Stonehaven into the second and third most expensive spots, with prices of £266,759 and £185,903 respectively.

In total, seven seaside towns had house prices above the Scottish average, including Prestwick (£159,500), Nairn (£162,671), Dalgety Bay (£163,322) and Dunbar (£183,136).

But while St Andrews is still the most expensive seaside resort by far in Scotland, others are fast catching up.

Many of those towns at the cheaper end of the market experienced far greater price rises in recent years, closing the gap between them and the more traditionally exclusive locations.

The biggest increase over the past five years was in Eyemouth, where price tags for property shot up by 140%. Next on the list were Fraserburgh (124%) and Peterhead (106%), and in all 75% of the seaside towns surveyed recorded a five-year increase above the Scottish average of 53%.

Nitesh Patel, housing economist at Bank of Scotland, said the seaside boom was a long-term trend that could be attributed to the more relaxed pace of life in coastal resorts.

He said: "Property in many seaside towns con-tinues to trade at a premium compared to Scotland as a whole due to the desire of many people to live near the coast. Living on the coast has many attractions, such as the climate and a high quality of life."

But while property prices have recorded an overall rise in the last five years, Mr Patel said that the last two years had seen affordability improve due to lower prices and increasing earnings.

By considering the ratio of house prices to average earnings, the Bank of Scotland was able to work out whether each town was affordable to live in - prices of more than four times annual salaries were given a negative rating, while towns that cost less than that were labelled affordable.

Under this system, around one-third of Scottish seaside towns were classed as affordable, with the remainder lying beyond most workers' reach.

Wick was named as the most affordable town, with a house-price-to-salary ratio of just over three to one. Girvan, Fraserburgh and Peterhead were next on the list, followed by Thurso, Saltcoats and Arbroath.

The least affordable towns were identified as St Andrews, North Berwick, Nairn and Dunbar, with Dalgety Bay, Carnoustie and Stonehaven also high on the list.

But while many of Scotland's seaside towns are priced out of people's markets, Scots can take solace in the fact that prices north of the border are significantly lower than those in England and Wales.

The average price in a Scot- tish seaside town was just £136,605 - less than the national average, and well below the £189,210 price tag for homes on the English coast.

With relatively modest growth of only 32% in England and Wales, however, the five-year rise of 57% in Scotland would appear to be fast narrowing the housing gap between Britain's constituent nations.