Yorkshire house prices: how did your area fare?

Analysis of the latest Land Registry data shows that Richmondshire and Ryedale had the highest house price increases in Yorkshire.

Values in the areas rose by 8.6 per cent between May 2017 and May 2018, which is almost treble the Yorkshire average of 2.9 per cent.

Richmondshire saw its average property price increase from £192,715 To £209,368. The area, which includes the attractive market towns of Richmond and Leyburn along with large parts of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, has been boosted by the upgraded A1, which is now three lanes allowing quicker access to Leeds and Newcastle. The drive from Richmond to central Leeds down the A1M is an hour and ten minutes.

Ryedale's average home value rose from £211,294 to £229,399. The rise is down to the market town's growing popularity.

A half hour drive from York down the A64, it is surrounded by beautiful countryside with the North York Moors, Hambledon and the Wolds on its doorstep. It's also a 45 minute drive from the coast.

One of the biggest draws is its train station, which offers links to the commuter hotspots of York, London and Leeds. The journey takes half an hour to York and a direct 52 minutes to Leeds.

The town is also well served with good schools, a swimming pool and a wealth of independent shops and artisan food and drink producers. A lack of stock is helping to drive up prices, according to estate agents. Cundalls say that sensibly priced homes are being snapped up quickly. A quick sale looks likely for the end townhouse on sought-after Middlecave Road, which Cundalls has just listed. The period house has four bedrooms, two bathrooms and a large side garden and is on the market for £276,000. The least expensive home for sale in Malton is a £95,000 one-bedroom flat on Rodgers Mews, which is on the market with Hunters.

Rotherham was third in the Land Registry table with a surprise 7.6 per cent rise in prices taking the average value to £135,952. Estate agent Jay Taylor, of William H. Brown, puts the spike down to more bigger and higher value homes coming to market.

“We've seen more of the bigger homes come up for sale and they have sold and the buyers are mostly from within the town.”

She adds that Rotherham isn't an area targeted by out-of-town house hunters or by buy-to-let investors, though those who ignore it could be missing a trick.

“There are some lovely villages around Rotherham, including Whiston, Wickersley and Wentworth and the town has really good road links. We've got the M18 at one end and the M1 at the other,” says Jay.

York was the only loser in Yorkshire with a 2.1 per cent fall in prices. The average house price fell to £241,318, which may be good news for those who want to buy into a city hailed by The Sunday Times as the Best Place to Live in Britain.

Ben Hudson, of Hudson Moody estate agents in York, says the increased number of very high value properties that sold last year, including a number of homes in the newly-converted former council offices on St Leonard's Place for between £1.5m and £2m, could have distorted the figures. He adds that another possible reason for the fall is that there are more new-builds in York, which are helping to satisfy buyer demand so there isn't as much pressure on prices.

“Property here is still selling very well here and as for price growth, I am not sure it is always a good thing because it can lock first-time buyers out of the market.”

The most expensive place to buy a home in Yorkshire is Harrogate, where the average dwelling now costs £280,334.

The cheapest is Hull, where the average home is £106,918. This kind of affordability could well be a selling point for the vibrant city, which showed the rest of UK just how fabulous it is, when strutting its stuff as UK City of Culture last year.

The Land Registry data also reveals that lack of stock has been a real problem for estate agents and would-be buyers. The number of completed house sales dropped by over a fifth between March 2017 and March this year – the latest figures available. The situation is even worse in London where the number of house sales fell by 28.6 per cent to 6,180 compared with 8,659 in March 2017.

Yorkshire House prices rises and falls over the year from May 2017 and May 2018 are as follows: Barnsley 5.5 per cent; Bradford 0.3 per cent; Calderdale 5.1 per cent; Hull 0.1 per cent; Craven 4.6 per cent; Doncaster 1.4 per cent; East Riding 3.2 per cent; Hambleton 0.7 per cent; Harrogate 1.4 per cent; Kirklees 3.5 per cent; Leeds 4.3 per cent; Norther Yorkshire 4 per cent; Richmondshire 8.6 per cent; Rotherham 7.6 per cent; Ryedale 8.6 per cent; Scarborough 5.6 per cent; Selby 5.7 per cent; Sheffield 6.6 per cent; Wakefield 3.3 per cent; York -2.1 per cent.