We are fortunate to live in a piece of Wales that is stunningly beautiful. The price for that is that the prices of our homes are artificially inflated by those who want second homes here.

Few young people can afford to live here and home ownership is largely a dream beyond their reach.

It would not normally be the position of this publication to celebrate the fall in property prices. But now, at last, there seems to be some softening in the property market, particularly in Gwynedd, where the Plaid Cymru-controlled council there has introduced a strict Article 4 policy. This in effect means that anyone wishing to purchase property in Gwynedd for use as a second home, now has to have planning approval for the change of use.

But the Article 4 measure seems to be working. House prices have plunged in Gwynedd since the crackdown on holiday homes, with values there falling 3 per cent in the final quarter of 2024 to continue a year-long property slump.

Year-on-year prices are now down 12.4 per cent in a county where those strict pricing mechanisms have been put in place. House values were also depressed elsewhere in North Wales in 2024 but latest figures from the Principality Building Society show tentative signs that, in these areas, the market is starting to move again. The average home now in Gwynedd costs £221,330, compared to £252,744 in December 2023.

Ceredigion saw a 2.8 per cent drop, with the average home being £10,000 cheaper in 2024 than the year before, but prices still remain higher than the national average.

The average Ceredigion home in December 2024 cost £261,115, with the Welsh average being £233,194. Powys however saw a rise in house prices with the average home now costing £258,399.

In Pembrokeshire, the average home now costs £240,675, down 8.9 per cent year-on-year. It is a county too that has brought in a second homes tax levy, subsequently lowered three months ago.

The lesson here is that second home measures are slowly working. And that’s a good thing.