Ramsgate knowledge? Grateful for info.

[Alwaysonarecce]

Hello there!
Interested in whether Ramsgate really is on the up on not. Just your opinions really, good or bad. So, two years after leaving London for the country (Kent) - in a tiny two up two down in a village near Tunbridge Wells, we chanced upon Ramsgate after a day trip to the seaside. Anyway, houses are cheap for a reason, but there is little way we can afford a reasonably bigger house near where we live, and it would be so nice to have a bit of a garden and more rooms for our toddler and maybe another baby. We’ve seen a 4 bed house with big garden, period, needs a lot of work, for the same price as our crazy small terraced cottage. We are so tempted and are getting estate agents round to value our house next week. Are there any Mumsnetters who can reassure me about my niggles? I got a great feel Ramsgate, had a coffee opposite the Marina on two different days, walked around, saw a lot of the grot spots and erm, locals (I don’t want to seem a snob but it’s obviously a different mix to the samey sameness of Tunbridge Wells...) but equally felt excited by the prospect of getting in early on the gentrification of it. I’ve heard lots of negatives, spoken to shop owners, estate agents, but good stuff too. The state schools aren’t as good as there, at least that’s how it seems, but the grammar is very near the house (assuming our toddler gets in) and there’s a chance we could go private if the schools don’t measure up. Prefer not to though. Anyway, Just interested if anyone’s out there! We’re a creative couple with steady jobs, husband not put off by the commute to London as it’s the same journey time as he does now. I stopped doing the commute 3 months ago. Sorry long post!

OP - with Brexit etc I would drop the “on the up” hopes and just take the areas as they are now and cross your fingers that there is the predicted property and economic crash isn’t toooooo bad and doesn’t sink these areas into even greater social deprivation - and you personally into negative equity.

I think you will be sorely disappointed if you invest emotionally in these areas regenerating at anything like the pace seen in London. I have been watching the south coast property market for decades and throughout the recent property boom these places are very slow to turnaround. 20 years ago Hastings and Eastbourne were tipped as the next big thing - never happened - what did happen though is that already established “upmarket” places Brighton, Canterbury, Lewes etc have continued to flourish. I would sell your house and rent down there for 6 months - so that you can experience these areas on a cold Tues in Feb and a hot Sat in July. Deal is mobbed on sunny weekends - heavy traffic, parking issues, loads of people drinking and eating outside the pubs until late. If you rented first it would know which streets / villlages / towns would work for you.

I live in Ramsgate, there are huge amounts of creative people moving down here at the moment, all you need to do is go to the right cafe or bar and you will find them. When you ask is it on the up I’m not sure how far the gentrification will go, it is never going to be tunbridge wells but certainly if you had come looking for a house five years ago you would have found a period house with sea views within your budget, these have all been snapped up now. The area in town you were looking at is very popular with DFL’s and I can guarantee if you moved to that area you would have neighbours working in creative jobs with young families.

Yes there is deprivation here like most seaside towns but it is a lovely part of the world to bring up children. Oh and regarding schools Ramsgate Arts Primary is a state school with an arts curriculum and strong links to the turner. Secondary schools are trickier if you’re not convinced your toddler would pass the Kent test but that is the problem moving to a grammar system.

Interested to hear where you ended up. I’m on a constant roller coaster of Rightmove Kent coast.. sooooooooo?

I just dug up this post and hope to get some views about Kent. We are thinking to buy a small 2 bedroom house in Kent as DH has to work there during the week. But we can only afford a house less than 300k. No need to consider school as both kids and me are still based in London and would like to use the Kent house for holiday and for DH's working day accommodation. So ideally we would like to live by the sea. We quite like West-gate-on sea and Folkestone where we enjoy the sandy beach and harbour. Deal is cheaper, so is Ramsgate. I don't have many friends living in Kent so our knowledge about Kent is quite limited. It's hard to decide where to look as Kent is a large county. Thanks in advance.