Houses in Edinburgh and Glasgow sell faster than anywhere else in the UK, according to the latest City Rate of Sale report from Post Office Money.

Edinburgh and Glasgow properties spend 41 days and 50 days on the market respectively, while the average UK property takes 96 days to sell.

Belfast, Liverpool and London homes take the longest time to sell — 119 days, 112 days and 111 days respectively.

The City Rate of Sale report, developed with the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr), examines the average time a property takes to sell in more than 20 major cities across the UK.

Owen Woodley, managing director, Post Office Money said: “Against a backdrop of muted but steady increases in house prices across the country and sustained demand from the FTB (first time buyer) market, these movements in time to sell reflect the changes in the number of properties listed for sale in cities across the UK.

“We know from previous research that first time buyers are taking a flexible approach to finding an affordable home, most especially towards location.

“Second Steppers in contrast have less flexibility as they are specifically looking to move to a new area (39%) or a bigger property (35%).

“Therefore, on the whole across the UK, the number of houses on the market has fallen because those looking to trade up are struggling to find good properties at acceptable prices.

“This is likely to become a growing issue as buyers are more likely to wait out the current market until price growth returns more forcefully.”

The report said the Edinburgh housing market has become increasingly competitive and a lack of new buildings is responsible for the fall in time on market and increase in prices.

It said Edinburgh has seen prices rise by 10.4% over the past year, well above the 3.9% growth for Scotland as a whole.