BUYERS seeking an affordable new home are looking more and more to East Kent, where improved road networks, easy access to the ferry ports and Channel Tunnel and lower prices have made the area a property hot spot.

Gone are the days when it was a struggle to reach Kent’s coastal towns, travelling along crowded narrow roads. Today the M20 serves the Ashford/Dover stretch while the new Thanet Way has opened up the Isle of Thanet to Broadstairs and the towns dotted along that stretch of coastline.

According to RPC Land and New Homes, buyers are coming from many different areas - London, the North of England, the South West - and many who spent family holidays in the area are returning to old haunts to retire or raise families.

Mary-Anne Strable, RPC area sales manager based at Maidstone, commented: “East Kent is now looking more attractive to purchasers with better road networks and access to the ferry ports and Channel Tunnel.

“Many people are opting to move away from more urban areas such as South London to sample the delights of living in the coastal towns they remember visiting in their childhood. We have also seen an increase in buyers purchasing a base here to return to and from their first or second homes on the Continent, such is the ease with which you can cross the Channel now.”

She said investment buyers were also active and first-time investors, looking to put their money in bricks and mortar as an alternative to traditional pension plans, were buying across the whole of East Kent.

“There are now some large employers in East Kent who have staff relocating to the area and many find the idea of a new home appealing with the lack of maintenance required, especially if they are only going to be in their home for a short term.”

RPC, which has centres in Tonbridge, Dartford, Maidstone and Haywards Heath, reports that new home sales in East Kent are particularly buoyant.

For further information on new homes in East Kent RPC can be contacted on 01622 691911.