Dozens of people desperate to get on the housing ladder have camped outside a house builder’s for days before the release of new homes.

Oakes Park in Central Road, Dartford, hasn’t even been built yet but people are clamouring for a promised new home.

Thirty two houses have been released today and from Tuesday, September 13, people pitched up in their tents to secure a place in the queue, even amid record temperatures, torrential rain and storms.

Engaged couple Dan Rawlings and Sam Pelling, both 31, were among them, having rented for eight years in neighbouring Chatsworth Road, Dartford.

They have been saving for four years and were desperate to get one of the homes. Mr Rawlings, who works in IT in London said: “We like Dartford, we’ve lived here a long time. It’s close enough to the city for me and good for Sam as she works all over Kent.

“We’ve seen the prices rocket in Dartford in the last few years and we just can’t afford to wait to buy any more, or we’ll be priced out the market.”

The pair returned from a holiday in Cyprus on Wednesday, September 14, and without even stopping to unpack went straight to Bellway in Lawson Road to put their names on the list of buyers and wait. There were already a number of people camped out.

Miss Pelling added: “If you can’t beat them, join them. We would have preferred an older house which would have been a project, but we’re using the government’s Help To Buy scheme and it’s only on new builds.”

The average UK house price is £308,151 according to Rightmove, but Oakes Park is being sold as “a great opportunity for first time buyers, young families and professionals to get on the property ladder”, with two bed homes starting at £234,995.

Mark Leach is also looking for a two bedroom home to share with fiancé Nicolle Barbercorr 2 Ls. Similar first time buyers, they arrived first thing on Friday morning but were already 25th in the queue and unsure of the numbers of two beds compared to three, weren’t confident in their chances of getting a home.

The couple, from Sidcup were looking to move to Dartford because of the excellent transport links, as they work in Isleworth and Clapham respectively.

Mr Leach said: “We’ve got friends and family here and they love it. They tipped us off to everyone camping outside so we thought we’d better get down here.”

First to arrive was Kamal Sulaimon who had travelled down from Welling on Tuesday to grab a home for his brother. He said: “He’s been looking for a long time but I saw this and thought it looks really good. Nice area, and close to London.”

Ganga Dutt, 39, was also in need of a home for his wife and their two children, and there were dozens of others in the same position.

Dartford is the fastest place to sell a property in Britain and the need is so great that a similar situation was seen during freezing conditions back in January. People camped outside the same Bellway homes development for its last release of houses for sale and they were all gone in just a few hours.

The council has pledged to oversee the building of 17,300 new homes by 2026 in the borough.

Oakes Park is a small development which makes up a park of a much larger building site: the Northern Gateway.

Between Temple Hill and Bob Dunn Way various developers are building. The brown field site was predominately made up of waste land, industry and the former Wellcome Pharmaceutical factory. Once complete the whole area will make up around 1,000 of those homes pledged.

The development once finished will comprise a mix of 72 terraced and semi-detached houses with allocated parking.

Emma Denton, head of sales at Bellway Homes Thames Gateway, said: “We are excited to be able to offer a selection of new homes in the popular town of Dartford where homes are in high demand.

“With the average property here being much less than the UK average asking price, it is not hard to see why it is a sought after, commuter town vying with other commuter boroughs. With a great range of house designs on offer, we anticipate homes at Oakes Park will be snapped up by those wanting more value for their money.”

Dartford station is just under half a mile away and it is on the doorstep of the A2 M25.

Visit www.bellway.co.uk.