According to locals, the British actress Kate Winslet has just bought a holiday home on the Isle of Coll, although her agent does not respond to The Herald's request for confirmation of this celebrity scoop.
She is not likely to have been troubled by the property prices that are out of reach for many hoping to remain or relocate to the small Hebridean isle.
Almost half of the properties (47%) on the neighbouring island of Tiree are known to be "low occupancy" second homes or short-term lets or are permanently vacant.
Despite its remoteness, there is very strong evidence of demand for housing on the island, which is the most westerly of the Inner Hebrides.
The number of people who would happily move if they could find somewhere to live is in the late twenties, according to Phyl Meyer, general manager of the Tiree Community Development Trust, which is working hard to find solutions to the problem.
His wife is a teacher and they moved to the island six years ago but it is only in the past two that pupils have stopped asking when she is going to leave.
"We get quite high turnover at the school", he says.
"Folk take a job here - it's maybe their first job and they think it sounds good and they come here, end up stuck in a caravan for two years and realise they aren't ever going to be able to afford a house and leave."
He mentions two teachers who were sharing a house and have just handed in their notice.
Mr Meyer says having children heavily influenced the couple's decision to move to Tiree from the mainland.
"One of the first things we did was come to this trust office and ask them what there was to attract a family like ourselves," he says.
"The youth officers sat down and listed a huge list of funded free activities for kids - it was a no-brainer.
"Why wouldn't you want your kids growing up here? We were however, incredibly lucky to get a house as quickly as we did.
"There happened to be a house that was a good option within sight of the school but it got a lot harder very quickly after we moved here."
He says there are "quite a lot" of people living in mobile homes while seasonal workers have been known to stay in tents.
One family of three who shared no less than 21 jobs on the island went public after being told their tenancy was coming to an end, fearing they would be forced to leave Tiree, but a solution was found, he says.
Around 650 people live on the Tiree, which is known as the "Sunshine Island" because it has some of the highest levels recorded anywhere in the British Isles.
The last Census showed the population had increased by 30% but locals say this is a "hangover" from Covid, "when all the second home owners decided it was safe to live here," said Gerard McGoogan, a member of Tiree Community Council.
His own island journey began with second home ownership.
His wife originally came to the island in 1972 in her teens before she left for better job opportunities.
"When my father-in-law died we inherited the house," he says. "We were second home owners for 14 years but we gave our house to our niece to live rent-free.
"Second homeowners are not all bad," he says but adds that the majority of houses that come up for sale "go off-island".
"It's terrible and it's getting worse and getting more and more difficult for people to live here and to stay here," he says.
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He said his niece had a budget of around £120,000 and she lost out on six or seven houses.
The cheapest property currently advertised on RightMove is around £250,000, he says.
The two islanders say the Scottish Government's LIFT scheme (Low-cost Initiative for First-Time Buyers) is not-fit-for-purpose in Tiree, which is under the control of Argyll and Bute Council, which was the first local authority to declare a housing emergency.
The government contributes between 10% and 40% of the valuation or purchase price - whichever is lower.
"It's a good scheme," says Mr Meyer "but the thresholds don't work here. People can't buy homes for the prices they offer."
The trust is working on a number of projects including 14 homes for long-term rent and shared-equity purchase at Scarnish.
"The reality is we might deliver less than that, it will be dependent on funding," he says.
"One of the on-island building companies can't get workers because there is nowhere for them to live so he recently bought a house just to put workers in." (Mull is doing a similar thing to house council workers.)
"That's part of the solution that we need right now," he says. "It just shows you the length that companies are having to go to to be viable."
Tiree has two housing associations; Argyll Community Housing Association (ACHAR) and West Highland Housing, which the community councillor says have put a lot of money into renovating existing properties including putting in air source heat pumps and solar panels.
"Both of those are good landlords," he says. "The problem is they haven't built a house in Tiree for 20 years.
The Trust recently bought a large chunk of land which belonged to ACHAR for a nominal sum to build four business units.
"Those four business units cost over £1million to build," said Mr Meyer.
"They are not big. The biggest one is six metres by four metres."
Getting the material and workforce over to Tiree is a huge challenge, he says.
"They [the Scottish Government] really need to put their money where their mouth is, if they want us to solve this problem."
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