The latest areas brought into the Yorkshire Dales National Park offer value for buyers

The YDNP status has helped bring the area to the attention of a bigger audience, meaning that tourism has benefited and some home buyers have extended their searches to reach places they were previously unfamiliar with.

The newest part of the National Park is explained beautifully and in detail on the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority website, which is always worth a visit.

In short, it includes the limestone-terraced plateau of Great Asby Scar, the northern Howgill Fells, Wild Boar Fell and Mallerstang and the settlements that surround them, along with the Grade I listed ruins of twelfth century Pendragon Castle at Outhgill, associated with Uther Pendragon, father of King Arthur.

To the west, it takes in the fells of Casterton, Middleton, Barbon and Leck, along with the tranquil valley where the River Lune flows under Devil’s Bridge, a beauty spot and a sight to behold when bikers from miles around gather there, as they often do at weekends.

Villages now in the YDNP include Ravenstonedale, Crosby Ravensworth, Orton, Maulds Meaburn, Great Asby and Crosby Garrett, Barbon, Leck and Casterton. The market towns of Kirkby Stephen and Kirkby Lonsdale, both just outside the national park boundary, serve them all well.

Brian Carlisle, MD of Hoppers Estate agency, which covers the Yorkshire Dales National Park areas from its offices in Leyburn, Hawes, Settle and Kirkby Stephen, says: “When the new places came into the National Park, it made a significant difference in two ways.

“People started to recognise that there was stunning countryside and pretty villages in those parts of Cumbria, or Westmoreland and Cumberland as it was formerly known. They also saw that some of them had good facilities, including broadband, pubs and shops plus access to good road links.”

Those links include the M6 junction at Tebay where you are in striking distance of the Lake District and Penrith or Lancaster and Preston in the opposite direction.

Jen Jamieson of the Fine and Country estate agency in Carlisle says: “We have definitely seen more people from outside the area looking to buy in the national park. Quite often, they have lived here and moved away and are coming back to their roots. That has happened since the start of the pandemic."

She adds: “Prices have definitely risen here over the past two years but they started to stabilise and even come back down a little.”

In 2016, house prices in much of the new YDNP area were up to 25 per cent cheaper than those in established hotspots in the Lakes and Dales.

A two-bedroom cottage in Hawes was an average of £175,000 to £225,000 but the equivalent in Kirkby Stephen and its surrounding villages was between £125,000 and £150,000. That gap has narrowed, not least because of the pandemic boom in buyers wanting to escape to the country.

But Brian Carlisle says: “The new area has not quite caught up with the old one yet but I think it will because demand is there and the second home market in particular is a constant.

“Though that doesn’t mean that we will lose a lot of family housing. Holiday property tends to be too small for families and eight out of 10 properties bought as holiday lets are already holiday lets.”

Top of the wish list for those moving to the Dales are, as ever, rural views, character and parking. If you are looking for new or newish builds in the extended part of the National Park, then Kirkby Lonsdale and Kirkby Stephen, just outside the park boundary are the best bet.

“They were left out of the National Park designation for a reason and that is to take the pressure off the villages and protect them from any rules that would see restrictions on development and new jobs,” says Brian.

As for worries about house prices falling, he adds: “There is a minority of would-be buyers panicking about mortgages and interest rates but the majority have done their sums. If you are buying a house to live in for the next ten years, it won’t be a problem.”

Those from outside the area who are hunting for a place in the country include the “expats” and a contingent from Leeds, Manchester and Newcastle with others from London, the Midlands and abroad.

“It’s not a bad thing that they are from out of the area as they spend money locally, their children are in local schools and they attend sports clubs,” says Brian. “Plus, people who work are bringing the population age down, at the moment it is well over 50. People live longer in the Dales.”