The London exodus: top schools, the best areas and new homes for first-time buyers in Medway
Average first-time buyer spend: £240,710, enough to buy a period three-bedroom terrace house.
Annual price increase: 3.6 per cent.
Proportion of homes sold to first-time buyers: 15 per cent.
The commute: trains from Rochester to St Pancras International take from 40 minutes;. An annual season ticket costs from £4,168.
Schools: Kent equals grammar schools, but a surprising number of Medway’s non-selective schools have poor grades from Ofsted, so choose carefully.
“Outstanding” candidates include Fort Pitt Grammar School in Chatham and Rochester Grammar.
What’s new? The Medway Towns are seeing more than their fair share of regeneration investment.
Close to historic Rochester is Rochester Riverside, a 52-acre regeneration zone beside the Thames which by 2030 will be transformed with 1,500 new homes, shops, restaurants and a school.
In Chatham, housebuilder Peel is at work on Chatham Waters, a 1,000-home regeneration featuring new shops, restaurants and bars.
The lowdown: just north of the Kent Downs, open space is not a problem in this area, while the Kent coast is also close.
Rochester, star of Charles Dickens novels, is the obvious choice for first-time buyers priced out of London’s urban villages.
Its historic cobbled streets have plenty of character, the High Street is full of independent shops and the castle and cathedral add wow factor.
Rochester has an excellent trove of lovely Georgian houses, too. However, these sell at a premium.
First-time buyers are most likely to be looking at a slightly drearier post-war house if they want to maximise their square footage.
Chatham has, historically, been a shabbier alternative although the recent £1.5 billion rejuvenation of its docksides has added more than 2,000 new homes, a shopping centre and a university campus to the mix.
Both towns have the summertime advantage of being half an hour’s drive to the seaside at Whitstable.
