YORK has seen the largest increase in property prices of any major town or city in Yorkshire over the past decade, according to research by an online estate agency.

Average house prices in the city have risen by a third since 2008, at a rate of just over £6,000 a year, from £185,287 to £246,888 in October 2018, said a spokeswoman for Housesimple.com, which has analysed Land Registry figures.

She said four other Yorkshire towns or cities had also seen average property price gains of more than 20 per cent over the decade, including Harrogate, with 29.3 per cent growth and Leeds, with 24.4 per cent.

She said that according to the Land Registry data, property prices across Yorkshire had risen by four per cent in 2018 alone, compared with an average annual rate of growth of 1.5 per cent since 2008, when the US housing bubble burst and triggered a global financial meltdown.

She said Middlesbrough was the only major town or city where prices had not yet recovered, with average prices still 2.9 per cent below pre-crash levels.

“Across the 10 largest towns and cities in Yorkshire, house prices have increased on average 14.3 per cent since 2008,” she added.

Darren Matthewson, Housesimple’s York agent, said: “It’s been a healthy year for property markets across Yorkshire as the north of England in general has seen a mini house price boom.

“The first-time buyer market has been particularly strong, helped by Government schemes such as Help to Buy and a wealth of affordable property stock.

“And investors have been flocking to northern urban areas in search of more attractive rental yields than offered in the south.”

A further analysis by The Press of the Land Registry data shows that over the most recent 12 month period, the average house price in York rose from £244,306 in October 2017 to £246,888 last October - a smaller rise than across Yorkshire as a whole.

However, they also show that York’s average house price briefly broke through the quarter million pound barrier last July, when the figure reached £250,985 before falling back during the rest of the summer and autumn.