The majority of the best performing regions in the UK regarding house prices are located in Scotland and the north of England.

This is the finding of Halifax's House Price Per Square Metre Survey, which looked at the home value movement of 467 towns - including 32 London boroughs - across the nation.

According to the research, most of the top ten locations in the rankings are situated either in Scotland or England's north. Indeed, the top four regions are all to be found north of the border, with Peterhead recording the most significant gains in average price per square metre over the past decade.

It was demonstrated that the Aberdeenshire town has been witness to a rise of 160 per cent over this period, increasing from £481 per square metre in 2001 to £1,254 per square metre in 2011.

Other Scottish localities to fare well in the rankings include Inverurie - which registered a 142 per cent leap - and Montrose, a town that has seen gains of 135 per cent in the last ten years.

The investigation found strong economic growth as a whole has helped drive these figures up - with performances in Aberdeenshire, for example, benefitting from the considerable success of the oil sector there.

Martin Ellis, housing economist at Halifax, said: "When looking at property prices on a square metre basis, there has been a huge divergence in house price performance across the UK over the past decade, ranging from a rise of 160 per cent in Peterhead in Aberdeenshire to 25 per cent in Belfast."

The towns that witnessed the smallest rises since 2001 were all located in either Northern Ireland or the south of England, the study revealed.

Earlier in the month, research from Halifax also showed home sales in northern regions to have increased markedly over the first six months of 2011, with Leigh, Rugeley, Bury and Houghton Le Spring being named as property hotspots.