Ilkley is Yorkshire's most expensive town in which to buy a home with prices rising by 20 per cent over the past 12 months to an average of £353,557.

The town on the edge of Ilkley Moor maintained its exclusivity by recording the biggest rise in house prices in the county during 2007 according to Britain's biggest mortgage lender, the Halifax.

While house prices in Yorkshire overall rose by 2.8 per cent in the first nine months of 2007, the market slowed down during the final quarter with average prices dropping by 1.3 per cent.

The Halifax says the fall in prices should be looked at in context as over the past decade prices in Yorkshire have risen by 181 per cent.

In its latest house price index the lender says that, overall, Yorkshire remains one of the most affordable regions with the average house being 25 per cent, or £50,000, lower than the UK average price of £197,071 at £147,187.

In Bradford and Keighley the average price of a house rose by ten per cent to £138,297 and £158,841 respectively.

House prices in Bingley rose by 14 per cent to £187,207; in Shipley by five per cent to £167,391; Skipton by nine per cent to £221,575; Cleckheaton by nine per cent to £179,164; and Pudsey by four per cent to £168,353. In Otley the average house price remained unchanged at £220,289.

But doubt was thrown on the Halifax's statistics by Ilkley estate agent, Bill Dale, a partner at Dale Eddison in the town.

He said: "Our experience points to a rise in Ilkley house prices last year of between five and ten per cent. The market was fairly buoyant until the autumn when we saw a slowing down and sales volumes have been lower since then.

"I don't know how the Halifax arrives at an increase of 20 per cent in Ilkley house prices. I can only think that it is a statistical quirk. For instance, two houses in the same road in Addingham were sold last year - one for £1.3m and the other for around £200,000 and that sort of difference is not always identified in national statistics."

Mr Dale said demand for houses at the top end of the market - in the £1m to £3m price bracket - remained strong and Ilkley remained a place that people wanted to live due to its location, ambience and good local schools and amenities.

He said: "There are still buyers out there but they are taking longer to make a decision and that means that the market is slower than at this time last year.".

The Halifax said that over the past decade the cost of flats and maisonettes in Yorkshire had grown by 229 per cent from an average of £40,324 in the last quarter of 1997 to £132,519 now.

Mr Dale said this was partly due to Government planning guidelines that required more housing per hectare of land and the best way to meet these was to build or develop apartments.

He said: "As a result of this policy we have seen the development of former commercial buildings and mills and the construction of larger apartments of the type which did not exist in the market previously and this will have had a bearing on prices."