We may be incomers (I've been here 15 years and my wife 25) but we are settled here but we are stuck in a 2 bed starter home because every 3 and 4 bed property is being purchased as a second home or holiday let so we can't move up on the market.I think everyone who owns property is worth more than they thought just now. A lovely house up my lane sold for £180k about eight months ago. Absolutely spot on, but the buyers are still spending a small additional fortune doing something, a lot, inside it.
Last week though, a tiny cottage with a tin roof up in the village, which I reckon would hardly qualify as a starter home, sold days after being put on sale for the same figure, £180k.
Property price inflation is out of control with tiny deposits required. We've been here before of course and it didn't end well. You might have thought that the banks would have learnt a few lessons by now but it doesn't look like it.
Unfortunately the vast majority of house buyers are immigrants from England who can sell their old properties and buy around here, way outbidding locals, while still releasing large amounts of cash to live on. However, they should know that it is a one way street and there is seldom a way back.