EAGER house buyers are camping at a village near Calne to keep their places in the race to own dream homes.

Over 20 families are camped at Lower Compton so they will be on the spot when Annington Homes opens up a sale of former Ministry of Defence properties next week.

The company has a first come, first served policy when selling homes and doesn't take a list of names before hand because it says some people don't turn up, slowing down the sales process.

Matthew Hibberd, 31, has been living in a tent near the site office since May 14, hoping to buy a bigger home on the estate where he already lives.

He said: "I heard there were so many people interested, so if I wanted it I had to get to the front of the queue.

"We are in second place, but literally ten minutes after we arrived, ten more people were there and they kept arriving through the morning."

Helen Luty, 31, expected to camp for a maximum of two weeks, but when she and her RAF husband, Chris, 33, from Brize Norton arrived to look around a house on the estate, they discovered 16 people were already in the queue.

She said: "We hit action stations, We drove to Oxfordshire to pick up our five-year-old son Charlie and then I drove back on my own and slept the night in my car.

"I'm 6ft 1ins and I spent my first night here on the back seat of a Fiat Punto with a bottle of red wine."

There are 42 homes up for sale at the site, with two-bedroom houses starting at £109,950 and four bedroom at £159,950.

The sale of the homes is due to take place on June 6.

The campers have banded together and created a real team spirit.