Two West Riding towns outstrip the market as property hotspots are named

Sowerby Bridge, near Halifax, and Todmorden, 10 miles to the west, are said to have seen average house price rises of between 10 and 12 per cent in the last 12 months – the second and fourth biggest in the UK, respectively.

Only Sudbury in Suffolk recorded a bigger increase than Sowerby Bridge. Properties there fetched an average of £265,000, compared with just over £190,000 in the two Yorkshire towns.

Miles Shipside, director of Rightmove, which produced the figures, said: “Although prices have grown at a muted rate of 1.2 per cent nationally this year, there are a number of local markets where strong demand and short supply has led to pretty heady price rises, especially in areas where homes are relatively more affordable than some of their nearby cities.”

Stephen Revell, branch manager at William H Brown estate agents in Sowerby Bridge, said: “Buyers are certainly cottoning on to the fact that in this location, you get a lot more property for your money.”

London was excluded from all the findings in the report, which went on to list Kendal, West Bromwich and the Cambridgeshire town of March among the other top ten hotspots.

York and Sheffield were among the most searched-for locations by buyers, Rightmove said, with Sheffield also a popular choice among renters, along with Leeds. Bristol topped the search results among both groups of househunters.

However, no Yorkshire centres made the list of places in which homes sell fastest.

Five of the top ten were in Scotland, where property laws differ, with two neighbouring Northamptonshire towns, Corby and Kettering, named the fastest moving in England.

Properties in Livingston in West Lothian, which topped the fast-selling list, can be bought for an average of less than £150,000.