House prices in National Parks have £125,000 premium

Snowdonia is the area with the smallest premium

Three bedroom cottage for sale, Beaulieu Road, Brockenhurst SO42 in The New Forest. On for £399,950 with Spencers.

Homehunters need to pay £125,000 extra on average to live in the National Parks of England and Wales in 2014 compared to the county average, a premium of around 58 per cent.

The highest premium according to the Lloyds Bank research is for homes in The New Forest at £259,066, or 101 per cent, followed by the Peak District (94 per cent) and the Lake District (84 per cent).

Average New Forest house prices are £516,479, 14 times local average annual earnings. The South Downs, Exmoor, Dartmoor, the Lake District and Peak District also have average prices more than ten times local average annual wages.

Snowdonia is the area with the smallest premium, with property prices five per cent above the average for the surrounding area. The average house price here is £173, 779, the only National Park where the figure is under £200,00.

The report shows that the average house price in National Parks in England and Wales has jumped from £251,269 in 2004 to £342,534 in 2014, £10,000 more than the increase in the average price for all properties in England and Wales over the same period.

General home affordability in National Parks has also worsened, with the average price just over 11 times higher than annual earnings compared to just over 10 in 2004.

"The high quality of life associated with living in some of the country's most beautiful areas attracts many homebuyers to our National Parks," said Marc Page, Mortgages Director, Lloyds Bank. "They are also increasingly popular with those purchasing a second property. These factors mean that homes in National Parks typically trade at a significant premium to properties in surrounding areas.

"The disadvantage is that the resulting high property prices have made it very difficult for many of those living and working in such locations to afford to buy their own home. This situation has deteriorated in recent years as prices have risen more rapidly than earnings."