As sterling struggles, Britons are selling their places abroad to buy cheaply at home in the UK

The Algarve is also seeing high numbers of British homeowners willing to take a hit on their asking price if they are bringing their euro profits home.

Caroline and Neil Irish, below, are releasing funds by selling their Algarve holiday home

' One British owner has reduced the price of his five- bedroom villa on Gramacho Golf Resort, near Lagos on the Algarve, from €715,000 ( £674,528) to €550,000 (£518,876),' says James Harrison, sales director of golf resort developer Pestana.

' He bought the house eight years ago for €200,000, so he'll still make a good profit and there is now a lot of interest in the property.

' These aren't distressed sales, but some owners are closer to the edge financially than they wanted to be. People need to decide what's best for them in this uncertain market and that often means dropping the price substantially,' Harrison adds.

Caroline Irish, 46, a housewife, and husband Neil, 45, the manager of healthcare company, are willing to a 20 per cent discount on their bedroom flat in Vale da Pinta in Carvoeiro, which is on the for €383,000 ( £361,320 at the exchange rate).

' We are prepared to take a price drop of the way the euro is going because prices of new apartments lower now than we paid two years says Caroline, who lives in Sandbanks in Dorset.

' We bought the flat new, gave it a fresh interior and have spent wonderful holidays there.

' We were hoping to downsize in the UK and spend more time in Portugal, but our UK penthouse, which is on the market for £795,000, hasn't sold, so we are selling the Portuguese property to release funds,' she says, adding that the adverse effect of the exchange rate is that repayments on their Portuguese mortgage have soared.