THE newly opened Anglesey Airport, in the south west of the island at RAF Valley, is opening up that very Welsh part of Wales. Twice daily flights, Monday to Friday, now link Anglesey with Cardiff and the possibilities for onward travel.

But the local estate agent Joan Hopkin believes that even with Holyhead, on the northwest coast, attracting millions of pounds in EU funding, Beaumaris, to the south, is where buyers should put their money.

“Inquiries for properties in Beaumaris have increased in the last year or two, due probably to the planned £7 million marina at Gallows Point on the outskirts of town rather than the airport further north,” she says. “Less expensive properties are now being snapped up in days, sometimes hours.” From a small provincial town in the 1970s, Beaumaris has morphed into a chic holiday destination, an attractive refuge to those worn to a frazzle by mainland UK.

But buyers have to pay a premium for this gentrification. Hopkin remembers selling the three-storey townhouse, a stone’s throw from Beaumaris waterfront, Grade II listed and with four bedrooms, for £50,000 15 years ago. It is now on the market at £300,000.

Can this return on investment be repeated elsewhere on the island? Helen Roberts, of Sheridan Jones estate agent thinks that it can, with Menai Bridge, gateway to the island, and Newborough, just around the corner on the southwest coast, top of her list.

The airport means that it’s now possible to buy a family home on Anglesey and a pied-à-terre closer to work, commuting at weekends if necessary. Melfyn Williams, a partner in Williams and Goodwin estate agents, says that some sellers have been holding off in the hope that the flights would help to push up property prices.

Anglesey has a dramatic and varied coastline with five Blue Flag beaches. But scenery aside, islanders know that tourism is a double-edged sword. Nearly a quarter of households on the island have earnings of less than £10,000 a year. Despite this, Melfyn Williams feels there is little problem with English incomers, saying that they represent only 10 to 12 per cent of property owners.

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