Some buyers are buying before properties are complete

Young people attempting to secure a flat said this was their only way of getting on to the property ladder.

But the developer, Tulloch Homes, has denied that housebuilders are responsible for restricting the supply of new housing.

It said local authorities could do much more to streamline the planning process.

Speaking on the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme, Godfrey Herman described the discomfort of queuing for days in a car on behalf of his daughter.

Fixed prices

He said: "I'm very cold, very uncomfortable, but I hope my daughter appreciates this because that's all we're doing this for.

"She's travelling in Thailand but by the time she gets back it'll probably have gone up five or ten thousand and it's just very difficult for anyone young to manage this."

Just behind Mr Herman in the queue was Natalie Ashman, who was hoping to buy a home with her fianc�.

Developers get it in the neck all the time for delay but it's really not us, it's the supply problem David Sutherland Tulloch Homes

She explained: "We've been watching the property market steadily over the last year growing and growing, and the prices are just rising and rising, and you've got to jump on the property ladder sometime.

"The only way we can do this is by guaranteeing a property at a fixed price where we don't have to start putting bids in for offers over, and surveying lots of houses with lots of survey fees on properties which we might not even get a chance to buy."

Queues of cars outside a sales office can generate valuable publicity for a developer, but in this case it insists that it is foot-dragging by local councils which restricts the supply of new homes.

New houses mean buyers can avoid the "offers-over" problem

David Sutherland of Tulloch Homes said: "It really is the system which is causing this.

"We're not controlling supply, the councils are controlling supply, and I have to say in the fastest-growing city in the Highlands the current local plan is one of the most uninspiring I've ever seen.

"Developers get it in the neck all the time for delay but it's really not us, it's the supply problem."

Mr Sutherland did, however, come up with a solution which should avoid the intending buyers having to spend another uncomfortable night in their cars.

He gave letters to all those already in the queue which ensure they have priority in choosing properties on the site when they go on sale.

Highland Council has meanwhile denied that it is to blame for any shortage of new houses coming on to the market.

Councillor Jimmy Gray, who chairs the Inverness Area Planning Committee, said: "The council does have to look at issues such as flood risk and there's very little you can do in planning that isn't subject to objections.