I’m on the train right now to London City airport for a weekend break to The Hague to see my sister. As my view flitted past Rochester Castle and Cathedral, I pondered the future of the Medway property market. Rochester in particular is certain to be changing as the Rochester Riverside £400m development has just been awarded to Countryside Properties, giving the green light for 1,300 new homes to be built by 2028.

You can read an article about the project here

This development will cover 74 acres on the brownfield site currently adjacent to the newly built Rochester train station, which was completed in December. A new school, nursery, hotels, restaurants, a gym as well as office and retail space are also on the menu. It looks like a quarter of the properties are earmarked as ‘affordable homes’.

This comes at an exciting time for Rochester as construction began this year for 1,000 new homes in Peters Village in Wouldham. The £50m development will provide a new bridge across the River Medway linking Cuxton to Rochester, as well as a new train station

What effect this will have on Medway and Rochester house prices remains to be seen, but certainly Rochester will look a very different place in the years to come. As I’ve mentioned in previous articles, an increasing population and the conserved Green Belt area around London means that Dartford, Gravesend, Medway and Maidstone will continue to be property hotspots due to their convenient location and excellent rail links.

Thanks for reading, and have a good weekend from the Medway Property News blog!

Hasan Sadik