The Chalabis are relieved to have found a home in Wales

Gill and Zuhair Chalabi were prevented by a council directive, aimed at making housing affordable for locals, from moving to the village of Pennal.

Two months on, they have moved into a property a few miles away on the coast in Eglwys Fach, near Machynlleth.

They say they have been lucky to find another house so quickly. Meanwhile, their first choice is still for sale.

Mr and Mrs Chalabi had sold their old home in Hampshire to buy Cilla Connor's house near Machynlleth for �240,000.

But, while negotiations were nearing completion, Gwynedd Council told the couple that the house - a former council property - could only be bought by a local.

The problems in Pennal were testing for us and it was terrible at the time, but we've been lucky to find a house so quickly Gill Chalabi

Widow Mrs Connor was then forced to put her house back on the market and it is still for sale two months later.

Mr and Mrs Chalabi, who are both in their 60s, told the BBC Wales News website that they were relieved that they had finally found a home in Wales - and only 10 miles from where they had originally hoped to buy.

"We are so pleased to find a house close to Pennal, but we have been helped by so many people who were sympathetic to our situation," said Mrs Chalabi, 64.

"We've been very lucky because we spent one night in a bed-and-breakfast following the collapse of the house sale and then a very kind lady let us stay in a cottage she had in the area.

"We'd sold our house so we were in a position to buy and we were staying in the area we wanted to buy in."

Mrs Chalabi added: "The problems in Pennal were testing for us and it was terrible at the time, but we've been lucky to find a house so quickly and in the area.

"We wanted to move to Wales because we loved the wildness of the country.

"We have family in south Wales too and found the community in Pennal so friendly and seemed in tune with my husband and I."

Cilla Connor thought she had sold the house in September

The three-bedroomed detached former school house, in Pennal, just inside Gwynedd's border with Powys, was originally owned by the local authority.

Mrs Connor, who was widowed three years ago, said she was unaware of the restriction which dictated to whom she sold the house.

The dilemma of how to make rural housing affordable for local people is an issue for all parts of rural Wales, where prices have risen sharply in recent years.

There are also concerns in Welsh-speaking areas that the survival of the language is threatened if there are too many incomers.