Any affordable rural housing? (From Western Telegraph)

Any affordable rural housing?

Dear Editor, - I moved to Pembrokeshire in 1997 from Newport, Gwent. Fortunately my partner, our two children and I are living in my mother-in-law's bungalow.

I am 31 years old and a skilled full-time worker and have recently had a wage increase to £12,000 per annum. We have a substantial deposit and have been looking to buy our own home for eight months. We have been offered a mortgage of £90,000.

I have begun to realise that the amount of properties, especially rural, that come on the market at around this price are few and far between, and as the months and property pages roll by it would now seem that we are financially well short of the amount needed to make a purchase (even ex-local authority houses and un-modernised properties are fetching £100,000 plus).

How on earth are the younger generations returning from university with debts going to make a step on to the property ladder?

What do the people who cannot afford to go to university have to look forward to? Another 600 £5-per-hour jobs at Bluestone on the horizon?

I feel Pembrokeshire is fast becoming similar to Cornwall in its ability to turn itself into an English retirement home. Without decent incomes and relative property prices this is the future, which begs my question: Any affordable rural housing for young families?

MR A. PAYNE Pinch Patch, Meadow Lane, Nolton Haven.