 Rob Gibson MSP says the demand is greater in scenic communities |
The soaring cost of purchasing a house in remote parts of the Highlands is pricing out local first-time buyers, an MSP has warned. Nationalist Rob Gibson wants the Scottish Executive to free up more land for affordable properties.
He said house prices rose by more than 70% in Plockton and Brora last year.
The executive said this year had seen record levels of funding for social housing and the launch of schemes to find more land for affordable homes.
House prices in Oban, Stornoway, Avoch and Westray saw a 30% increase last year, and even the smallest rise in the Highlands - 7% in north-west Sutherland - was well above inflation.
Mr Gibson said the figures confirmed that local first-time buyers were being priced out of the market.
He said scenic areas of the Highlands and Islands were especially badly affected.
Where it might once have taken five years for a young couple to save a deposit on a house, it would now take a lot longer.
Market value
Mr Gibson said the land system needed to be changed by the executive to make more land available to allow local young people to buy house sites well below market value.
The housing needs of rural communities were discussed by experts at a seminar in Aviemore in June.
Affordable housing provider Albyn Housing Society hosted the event to discuss the types of housing which would be required in the future.
It is also an issue in the Aviemore area, with Cairngorms National Park considering introducing residency restrictions on new housing in the area.
Under the proposals, the authority would also have planning control over attempts to turn existing residences into holiday homes.
 The MSP said house prices in Stornoway had also soared |
There has been a problem in the park over the lack of affordable housing.
While the number of older people is increasing, those below 40 are set to drop by 30% over the next 20 years.
Meanwhile, an area of national forest land in Fort Augustus, near Loch Ness, was made available for affordable housing earlier this month.
Communities Minister Malcolm Chisholm cut the first sod at the site of eight new houses.
The land was transferred to Albyn Housing Society as part of an agreement between Communities Scotland and Forestry Commission Scotland.
The executive said that a record �31.5m spending for affordable housing in the Highlands had been announced earlier this year.
Also, Homestake - a scheme where a housing association funds 40% of a property and the other 60% is mortgaged by the buyer - was launched in Inverness and the first agreement was signed in Thurso.
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