Two first-time buyers who made it on the ladder mid-pandemic are calling on sellers to support local buyers, amid warnings the stamp duty holiday is pushing people out of their own home towns.
Jackson Higginbottom, and his partner Holly from St Ives, have spent the past four years saving for the deposit to buy a house.
Earlier this year, the couple finally got on the ladder in the area they grew up in - Sennen, Cornwall.
However, with interest in the seaside location rocketing in the past year - they reached a point where they believed they'd never make it on the ladder.
"Homes were disappearing off the market in five minutes," Jackson told Cornwall Live.
According to property website Rightmove, demand in Cornwall has risen 140% in the past year - the highest increase in the UK as the stamp duty cut continues to fuel a property market boom.
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It said in the first quarter of this year, 15.2million people searched for properties to buy in Cornwall - up 9million on the same period in 2019.
The interest is believed to be fuelled by Covid lockdown restrictions and a stamp duty holiday that means people can currently buy tax-free in England and Northern Ireland.
But Jackson and Holly say pent up demand is pushing locals out of the area.
According to Rightmove, asking prices of properties in the county have increased by 11% over the past year from £302,880 to £318,852.
The average rise across Great Britain is 5.1%.
Jackson and Holly believe buyers should not have to pay over the asking price if they have grown up in the region they are buying in.
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"As soon as you see somewhere you like.it's gone," Jackson said, describing their house hunt.
He said it's pushing locals out: "When you're talking houses out of our price range, then fair enough.
"But when it's first-time buyer prices, and they're going like that, you can't help but think, 'for God's sake'. It's obviously locals after that, can't people give us a bit of a chance?"
Jackson said he wants to encourage sellers to sell to locals.
He said properties were disappearing in minutes during their house hunting process.
Jackson continued: "Online listings vanished instantly, but we did finally spot this one home in Sennen. We hadn't even thought of looking there as it's way out of our price range but we went straight to the bank, straight to the estate agent and offered the asking price."
He explained that due to pent up demand, he felt forced into offering the asking price - instead of attempting to bargain with the owner.
"It's a common expression that you never pay the asking price," he said.
"But we didn't want to risk this for the sake of coming under the asking price," Jackson said, admitting he felt under pressure.
He said this was a testament to how tough the situation has become for people trying to buy a home where they grew up and where they have made a life for themselves.
Jackson works for Sennen Surfing Co, with a workshop in Lamorna, and his partner works at Penwith College; uprooting all of this because of a tough housing market would have been a massive blow to the couple, who also have twins on the way.
Fortunately, the seller accepted the offer. However, since then, Jackson and Holly learned that he had turned down two separate offers from buyers which were, according to Jackson, "massively over the asking price".
In the area, a house in Port Isaac recently sold in just five minutes.
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"There's us thinking we're really stretching to offer that asking price," Jackson said. "We don't even know the guy, but he has done the decent thing and turned away these offers.
"For us, we'd paid a higher deposit and took a while to get everything sorted as first-time buyers. He had seven months to hold off from tourists and wealthy cash buyers."
He also said he thought it was sad that his story is even worth talking about, adding: "It shouldn't even be a story - 'couple grows up and buys a house when they're 30 in their local area'.
"But clearly it is. It feels like you're being kicked out of where you grew up, to sum it up.
"We're both surfers, we both want our kids to grow up here too. We're outdoors people, we don't want to go to the city and live that life.
"To have our upbringing and then find that we can't afford to live here is horrible. Most of us never have any chance of living here."
Jackson said he hopes his story will encourage other sellers to prioritise first time buyers - particularly if they are from the local area to begin with.
"We really hope people make the right moral decision when choosing between selling a house to a local couple, or getting more money and accepting it from a holidaymaker," he said. "And I can't believe we've actually managed to pull this off. I keep having to pinch myself."