A beautiful seaside village is offering an improved quality of life for those originally from the city. Sandgate near Folkestone, Kent, has become a popular place for Londoners to relocate to – and estate agents say they’re snapping up most of the homes on the market there.
Carlo Martella, Estate Agent for Your Key Move Sales, told the Express: “We found a lot of people from London are liking the fact that they can come to Folkestone and Sandgate especially, being on the seafront, has got a lot of appeal for people.
“I’d say a good 50-60% of property sales are people from London, although that’s good because it brings a lot of money down here, we have seen house prices going up significantly. In some respects it can be detrimental on the basis that it’s pricing some local residents out of certain areas and properties.”
Along the seafront, rainbow-coloured houses offer panoramic views of the English Channel. The village’s impressive transport links means London is less than an hour away on the high-speed train from Folkestone Central.
The Royal Norfolk Hotel, at the heart of the village along Sandgate High Street, has a 4.5 star rating on Google reviews and is just 300 metres from Sandgate Castle. William Burles started running the 19th century hotel two and a half years ago after being made redundant from P&O.
He said: “We’ve got the beach, everybody flocks to the beach and we’re on the bypass of that. We used to have some empty shops, but now we don’t. There’s restaurants and bars opening, Sandgate is becoming quite cosmopolitan.
“There’s always something going on, it’s a nice community here. Guests who have just checked out today, they’ve been down here looking for houses and they’re from the Midlands. And they’re not the only couple doing that, we’ve had quite a few recently.”
However, it’s not just people looking to relocate that enjoy visiting Sandgate.
“We get Dutch guests, Germans, Italians, Canadians, Australians, which makes for fun conversations in the dining area in the mornings,” the 60-year-old added.
The hotel has also been home to Monty the talking parrot for the past 20 years.
“When I took the hotel over, I wasn’t quite happy about having a caged bird, but Monty’s lived here for 20 years. He comes out and plays quite often, he’s quite the bit of fun.”
Popular spots for visitors include The Boat House, Zig Zag Path and the House of H.G, former home of a famous English novelist.
The highly anticipated annual Sandgate Sea and Food Festival is set to take place next month over August bank holiday weekend.