Why Thirsk and its villages have seen bumper house price growth

Significant increases were also recorded in Ripon and surrounding villages, which saw a 16.4 per cent average uplift in values.

The Boroughbridge area recorded a 15 per cent growth, Bedale saw an 11.96 per cent gain, Harrogate 10.35 per cent and Wetherby 9.47 per cent.

These increases are far greater than in the previous year, which showed a combined annual increase of 7.9 per cent rise across the defined area.

Toby Milbank, a director of The Search Partnership, says: “These statistics, using Land Registry data, show a stellar performance for house values in these locations.

“This rate of price increase now brings the average 10-year house price increase to 34 per cent during a period when inflation has increased by around 26 per cent.”

The Search Partnership believe that the Thirsk area’s chart topping performance is a result of it “catching up” and say: “It had a slow start compared to the other areas in our report but the pandemic and the ability to work from home helped highlight its charms as it gives buyers the rural lifestyle while also being very accessible.”

Thirsk and its villages benefit from excellent road and rail links. The town has a railway station with services to York, which take 18 minutes and to Leeds, which take 43 minutes. There are also direct trains to London’s Kings Cross station.

The town also has a popular racecourse, a Tesco and an Aldi supermarkets, a host of good independent shops, well regarded schools and a leisure centre.

Among the most popular villages is chocolate box Coxwold, which is home to the Fauconberg Arms, a popular pub/restaurant with rooms. Others include Thirkleby, Felixkirk and Asenby, along with many more.

The area is known for being a place where “quiet wealth” makes its home and there are a significant number of high net worth individuals who choose to enjoy country life here.

Bedale and surrounding villages showed the greatest house price inflation over the past 10 years with a 41.64 per cent rise.

The Thirsk area saw a 35.69 per cent rise, Ripon area home values rose by an average 38.97 per cent, Boroughbridge recorded a 36.47 per cent uplift while the Harrogate area saw gains of 28.25 per cent and Wetherby and its villages recorded an increase of 25.5 per cent.

As for the future now that the red hot property market of the last few years has cooled down, Toby Milbank says: “The Land Registry sales prices are delayed by around three months and therefore, come to an end in November 2022.

"The months of November, December and January are likely to show average sale prices falling in all three months, as the effect of interest rate rises starting to bite and the cost of living crisis deepens.”

Fellow director at The Search Partnership, Tom Robinson, adds: “The housing market has calmed in recent months but despite prices having reached their peak and starting to fall in some sectors of the market in the last quarter, we are pleased to report that this change has been gradual, rather than dramatic across our region.

“With around 85 per cent of UK mortgages now on a fixed rate and with over 90 per cent of customers taking out new loans on fixed rates, as a nation we do have a barrier against interest rate rises, which is one of the reasons that prices have not dropped off a cliff edge.”

Looking ahead, The Search Partnership is predicting that the prices will fall in 2023 with one exception.

Toby Milbank says: “With household income being put under pressure by higher living costs and continuing interest rate rises, the sub £750,000 market will be worse affected and we predict a fall of over five per cent in 2023.

“For detached houses in the £750,000 to £2m bracket we predict a two per cent reduction in value this year but the top end of the market, above £2m, where stock remains low and demand is still high and with a much-reduced reliance on mortgage finance, we don’t foresee price falls in this sector over the next 12 months.”