Saltaire home owners are set to benefit from buoyant property prices boosted by the village's new-found World Heritage Site status, estate agents predicted today.

And Shipley's MP Chris Leslie, who lives in Saltaire, believes a village management plan, drawn up alongside the bid for heritage status, will result in house values rising by ensuring standards are kept high.

Peter Leadbeater, manager of Dacre, Son and Hartley's Saltaire branch, said they intended using the heritage status - granted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) last month - as a selling point when marketing properties in the village.

He said: "The market in Saltaire's been extremely buoyant for the last 18 months anyway, partly based on the publicity generated by the bid for World Heritage status.

"Now that's been granted there's likely to be even more interest and demand for property there. I think prices will remain buoyant. The fact Saltaire is now a World Heritage Site is definitely worth talking about and something we'll be promoting along with everyone else.''

Mr Leadbeater said there were also likely to be long-term benefits from a buoyant local market for property owners in neighbouring communities such as Nab Wood, Shipley, Cottingley, Baildon and Shipley.

Denise Feather, of Saltaire-based letting agents Village Estates, said: "Saltaire's always been very popular anyway - especially among people wanting to commute to Leeds, Bradford and Manchester - with properties going within a couple of days of becoming available.

"World Heritage status can only enhance things further and will mean people from further afield now know about it too.''

Lynn Moriarty, manager of William H Brown's Shipley branch, said she believed property prices would increase on the back of the village's heritage status as it continued to attract young professionals.

And John Massam, of Shipley's John Massam Properties, said: "The big employers in Saltaire such as Pace and Filtronic already create a big demand for property and although it's still early days all the indications are that this will create even more demand.''

Shipley MP Mr Leslie said: "Though World Heritage status doesn't come with any direct grants it does create a certain cachet which I'm sure will add even greater desirability to an already popular area and result in a marginal, but still significant, increase in property prices.''

He added that property values were likely to be enhanced as having the international spotlight on Saltaire and a management plan in place was likely to result in standards being kept high and speedy attention being paid to problems such as broken paving stones or street lighting.