gardn-cit

At one end of Kent – known as the Garden of England – a new Garden City is taking shape at Ebbsfleet, with 15,000 homes and hundreds of new jobs.

Further down the county, two of the grandest houses in England have come up for sale at the same time.

The new Garden City will include commercial development and office space, and will include the redevelopment of the Northfleet Power Station, helping to deliver 700 new jobs and to regenerate a large area of the south bank of the Thames, to the east of London.

Down on the coast, meanwhile, Charles Dickens’ summer home in Broadstairs, a seven-bedroom mansion with staff quarters, has come onto the market for £5.2 million. Known as Bleak House, this was where Dickens wrote David Copperfield in 1851 and is thought to have been the inspiration for the novel Bleak House – often considered his greatest work.

The Grade II listed home was built in 1801 and has been fully restored.

In Tunbridge Wells, the nine-bedroom Langton House Estate is on the market for £6 million, with its stable block, 58 acres, tennis court and cricket ground with its own pavilion. Should events turn troublesome, there is a nuclear shelter.

GRE Assets will soon be offering a major new development in Ashford, Kent