House prices in Kent

[BeansOnToastWithCheese]

We're thinking about making the traditional move from London out to the surrounding counties soonish, and I've been looking at potential areas. Kent seems way cheaper than any of the other areas in the south east, but I'm not really sure why.

We'd probably be interested in the area around Canterbury, Faversham etc - it seems you can get a huge amount more for your money there than you can in Herts, Bucks etc where we grew up. We also considered Essex and East Sussex, and although they aren't as pricey as Herts and Bucks, they're still quite a lot more expensive than Kent. Any ideas?!

Depends on the area in Kent. My home town is less than a hours train into central London but its quarter of the price where I live the same difference from London still. Parts of Kent seemed ok when I was a child but are dumps now. I coul move back I think as I know the nicer places.

House prices went up.a few years back when rent caps came in. Lots of people came from London then

We moved from London to Kent almost 5 years ago. We are in a lovely village outside Maidstone. Absolutely love it here. However house prices are pretty high in this area, the days of moving to Kent and a lovely area and saving £££££ are over. If it’s cheap and in Kent now it possibly won’t be a great area. Not to say there aren’t bargains but we very careful on which area there are some pretty grim places. I’ve spent hours on right move looking for our next move and can’t find anything suitable (could be covid related though). Good luck!

I also live in a village near Maidstone (waves to Decameron) which is lovely - countryside on your doorstep, with the benefits of town nearby. Also used to live in Herts..

Hertfordshire has a closer commute to london, which I think is why it’s more expensive. Also, success breeds success, so it’s it perceived as desirable, becomes popular, house prices increase etc. It’s amazing how much more you can get for your money if you pop over the border into Beds.

There was a thread on here a week ago asking for advice regarding a house. The house looked lovely but every response from posters in the area was negative , because of the location

There are lovely areas of Kent and some not-so lovely - the house prices reflect that.

Also, if you have children, don't forget Kent is a grammar school county.

This can be a positive thing if your children are academic but does mean the non-grammar schools can suffer from having lost the most academic students.

I used to live in a one bedroom flat in Bromley. Moved to Kent 8 years ago - now live in a lovely 3 bedroom house, large garden etc. The same sort of house in Bromley is 800K, mine is 350K.

Canterbury is beautiful. We live in Deal, a lovely seaside town with high-speed rail links to London.

Thanks everyone! Looks like we need to think carefully - we don't have kids (yet) but I have reservations about the grammar school system so that's definitely something to bear in mind.

I think we'll have to wait until lockdown is over and over go and spend long weekends in a few places around Kent to see what it's like to spend some proper time there. I've got Faversham, Canterbury and Deal on the list so far... :-)

OP, Faversham is great

Do you need to commute into London? If so, look for places with the High Speed link. Canterbury to St Pancras takes an hour but obviously season tickets are stupidly expensive.
Canterbury is....ok though like most other places the High Street has taken a major bashing and there are lots of empty shops. Due to the number of students you do have to be careful which area you live in. With a healthy budget and if transport issues aren't a massive issue then there are some nice villages... Bridge, Chartham, Boughton, Harbledown etc.
Deal as has been said earlier is nice as are Hythe and Whitstable if you want coastal. Folkestone I think is slightly cheaper and there are some nice bits...
Maidstone has decent shopping and there are villages around there that might be worth a look.

We might need to go into London for work, it depends what our employers decide to do about being office-based vs being home-based after the pandemic. A few days a week into central London from the coast might be do-able but I think it would be too much to take on 5 days a week.

I'm retraining to be a psychotherapist at the moment so I hope I can do that part-time alongside my other job - so it slightly depends on how much work there is in that field locally. I'd have thought it's easier to work in private practice somewhere bigger like Canterbury. Lots of food for thought!

The one tip I would give you if you are buying along the coast is make sure it has parking
People are flocking to the coastal towns at the moment