Best Places to Live in Scotland 2026
Garrington Property Finders are delighted to present the Best Places to Live in Scotland 2026.
Scotland’s property market outpaced the rest of Britain in 2025, with average prices north of the border rising more than twice as fast as they did in England and Wales.
Official data from Registers of Scotland shows that the value of an average home in Scotland climbed by 3.3% to reach £191,825.
However, this national average masks some huge regional variations. With an annual inflation rate of 9.3%, average prices rose fastest in Argyll and Bute. At the other end of the scale, prices fell by 7.5% in Aberdeen.
While most parts of Scotland saw average prices tick upwards, some areas bucked the national trend and became better value as prices fell. At the other end of the scale, many perennially popular hotspots saw prices rise steadily. We’ve compared the strengths of them all and selected the best of the best for our 2026 Best Places to Live in Scotland report.
Quicklinks for reviewing the Best Places to Live in Scotland 2026
Garrington has analysed data to uncover the best places to live in Scotland and has created a tool that enables house hunters the opportunity to compare places they’re considering when shortlisting locations.
Use Garrington’s analysis tool to compare locations in Scotland
See the top 20 Best Places to Live in Scotland 2026
How to choose the perfect place for you
If you’re thinking of moving in 2026, our Best Places to Live in Scotland guide can help you identify places in the area you like best that offer the perfect mix of quality of life, strong value, and growth potential.
Our data analysts have identified more than 160 cities, towns, and villages across Scotland that all score highly in at least one of five selection criteria: natural beauty, wellbeing, heritage and culture, employment and connectivity, plus value for money.
As always, we’ve made our national ranking available for free, and you can use the interactive tool below to check out the entire league table, whether you’d like to see how your current hometown scores, or just want some inspiration for places that offer more of what matters most to you.
Top ranked locations 2026
At a glance, these are the locations that ranked highest this year – these are the Best Places to Live in Scotland 2026:
- Selkirk, Scottish Borders
- Peebles, Scottish Borders
- Milngavie, East Dunbartonshire
- Newton Mearns, East Renfrewshire
- Bearsden, East Dunbartonshire
- Galashiels, Scottish Borders
- Linlithgow, West Lothian
- Crieff, Perth and Kinross
- Perth, Perth and Kinross
- Livingston, West Lothian
Use Garrington’s analysis tool to compare locations in Scotland
See the top 20 Best Places to Live in 2026
The best places to live in Scotland 2026
1. Swashbuckling Borders town crowned 2026’s winner
Top of this year’s ranking is historic Selkirk in the Scottish Borders, famed for its narrow wynds and breathtaking views across the surrounding countryside.
Despite its compact size, Selkirk has played an outsized role in Scottish history. Selkirk is traditionally associated with William Wallace’s appointment as Guardian of Scotland at the Kirk o’ the Forest, an event later dramatised in Braveheart, and Sir Walter Scott later served as Sheriff for three decades.
Selkirk still sees plenty of swashbuckling. Every June, hundreds of riders on horseback trot, canter, and gallop around the town’s borders and ford the River Ettrick to commemorate the 1513 Battle of Flodden.
The town scored well in all five of the categories that determine the overall ranking, and came fourth in the value for money category. At £242,889, an average home in the area costs more than the Scottish national average, but official data shows prices in Borders softened by 3.7% over the preceding 12 months.
2. Why Peebles is pedalling its way to the top
Nearby Peebles came second in the overall ranking and scored highly in the wellbeing category thanks to its sporting activities.
The town offers some of the world’s best salmon fishing on the River Tweed, and is home to the annual Tour o’ the Borders cycle race. Despite being just a 30-minute drive from Edinburgh, it sits amid spectacular countryside that once inspired the Scottish author John Buchan.
The top 20 best places to live in Scotland 2026
15th placed Kirriemuir, which is known as the ‘Wee Red Toon’ because of its distinctive red sandstone buildings, also has a literary connection. The childhood home of JM Barrie, author of Peter Pan, is open to visitors, and there is a statue of his most famous creation nearby.
The Angus town, billed as the Gateway to the Glens, also offers great value to prospective buyers. Average property prices in the area stood at £201,889 when we conducted our analysis, 2.3% less than they had been a year before, making Kirriemuir one of the most affordable hotspots in the top 20.
Best place to live in Scotland for value for money
Even though average property prices rose across Scotland in 2025, national figures can mask big local variations, and our analysts examined price movements in each of Scotland’s local authorities, comparing them with the regional average and against last year’s figures to create a ‘best value’ score that was overlaid with the other four categories to produce the overall league table.
Nearly half of the top 20 locations in our 2026 ranking saw average property prices fall. Prices fell furthest in Perth and in the nearby town of Crieff, both of which saw average prices drop by 4.5% over the year. The city of Perth, near the historic Scone Palace Estate, was ranked first in the natural beauty category and joint eighth overall, alongside Crieff.
Together with 19th-placed Blairgowrie and Rattray, which also saw prices fall by 4.5%, the three shared the top spot in the value for money category with an average home selling for £247,499 in September 2025.
Prime performers
At the other end of the scale, three affluent Glasgow suburbs – Milngavie, Bearsden, and Bishopbriggs – all saw prices rise over the year. At £348,776, an average home in East Dunbartonshire, in which all three sit, cost £100,000 more than a typical home in Perth.
Bearsden has two millennia of history and boasts a small loch, a nature reserve and no fewer than five golf courses. Its high average salaries and fast connections to central Glasgow propelled it to fourth place in the employment and connectivity category, and to fifth place overall.
Neighbouring Milngavie, nestled in the Allander River valley and the starting point of the West Highland Way, clinched third place overall.
Just eight miles from the centre of Glasgow, the town is popular with professionals who commute into the city, but its outdoor spaces lifted it to 16th place in the natural beauty category.
Staying well
Last year’s overall winner, Bridge of Allan near Stirling, slipped to 24th overall in our 2026 ranking. But the former spa town nestled at the foot of the Ochil Hills is still a star performer when it comes to wellbeing, coming third in that category this year.
The town, which is home to the University of Stirling and is dotted with handsome Victorian villas, sprang to prominence in the 19th century when its spa attracted the literary giants Robert Louis Stevenson and Charles Dickens. While visitors no longer come to take the healing waters, its golf club and sporting facilities provide plenty of opportunities to stay fit and healthy.
Dundee’s seaside surprise
A new entry in this year’s top 20 is Broughty Ferry, the seaside town often referred to as the ‘jewel in Dundee’s crown’. With quick links to the city and many of its residents having well-paying jobs, Broughty Ferry scooped first place in the jobs category of our ranking and came 18th overall.
Blessed with a stunning beach, whose golden sands are lapped by the River Tay, the town is also home to the fifteenth century Broughty Castle. This medieval fortress now houses a museum and offers spectacular views across the Tay estuary, helping Broughty Ferry claim seventh place in the heritage and culture category of our ranking. At just £165,086, the average cost of a home in the area is the most affordable in this year’s top 20.
Find your perfect place to live
You can use the tool below to compare more than 160 cities, towns, and villages across Scotland.
Simply type the first three letters of the place you’re looking for into the interactive box. You can view all the locations in a region by selecting ‘browse by region’, or to see how two places match up against each other, click the ‘Pin me’ button to compare their scores side by side.
Getting expert help
If you feel you’d benefit from the guidance and expertise of a professional property buying agent, please get in touch for a free, no obligation discussion about your moving plans and the services we offer.
Need help finding your perfect home? Click here to tell us what you’re looking for.
From the big city to the great outdoors
In addition to our national research, Garrington’s team of Scottish regional experts has unmatched on-the-ground knowledge, with decades of experience sourcing and securing beautiful homes across Scotland for our clients.
Our reach extends well beyond the blue riband locations featured above, and our hyperlocal insight often reveals places that aren’t on mainstream lists – yet – but are still very much on the rise.
Leaning into their deep local expertise, our advisors have pinpointed several hidden gems and future hotspots – places that may not rank at the top in every data category, but which are nonetheless full of charm, lifestyle appeal, and growth potential.
To explore these hand-picked recommendations, visit our dedicated Scotland page, where you’ll find links to a series of regional articles.
From chic city haunts to majestic Scottish retreats, we’ve selected areas to suit every taste.
Behind the Best Places to Live in Scotland research
Each year, our team of Scottish property experts collaborates closely with our research analysts to shape the methodology behind this, and our separate Best Places to Live report for England and Wales.
By analysing a consistent set of trusted data sources, we ensure year-on-year comparability, thus allowing meaningful insights to be drawn and emerging trends to be identified.
You’ll find full details of our research methodology and the data sources we use in the sections below.
Best Places to Live in Scotland research methodology
Garrington’s Best Places to Live in Scotland report 2026 is an impartial, objective ranking based on publicly available data. The ranking is not based on subjective or personal opinions.
Our data team ranked 161 Scottish locations according to 12 separate criteria, including proximity to National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, air quality, crime figures, availability of high-paying jobs, transport, and broadband connections.
The analysis included a total of 161 locations with a population of 5000 or more. Our report is NOT a league table of Scotland’s ‘best and worst places to live’. On the contrary, the research only ranks the best places to live, so being included, whether at number 1 or at number 161, is to be applauded.
Data sources for our Best Places to Live in Scotland research
A wide range of data sources have been used to create the report’s proprietary research methodology. These include:
The Office for National Statistics, Scottish Government, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Registers of Scotland, Royal Mail, Ordnance Survey, Scottish Natural Heritage, DEFRA, BEIS, NapTAN (Ministry for Transport), and Openstreetmap contributors.
Media enquiries and intellectual property
We welcome enquiries from journalists and recognised media outlets regarding our Best Places to Live in Scotland Research 2026. Our team is pleased to assist with requests for further information, and members of our senior management team are available for press interviews, subject to availability. Please contact us here with such requests. We are happy to support accredited members of the press, including those from recognised publications and the Press Association.
All research findings remain the intellectual property of Garrington Property Finders Ltd. While we are pleased to share publicly available insights, we regret that our proprietary datasets are not available to third parties. The use of this content without appropriate credit or acknowledgement of Garrington’s rights is strictly prohibited. When referencing our research, please ensure it is clearly attributed to Garrington Property Finders.
