From commuter-belt border towns to creative coastal hotspots, Kent is firmly in Londoners\u2019 sights.<\/p>\n
Every year, thousands of people make the move \u2018Down from London\u2019 – the much-talked-about DFLs – in search of space, affordability and a different pace of life.<\/p>\n
Almost 40% of people who have moved to the Folkestone and Hythe district since 2011 came from London. Picture: Barry Goodwin<\/p>\n
Now, KentOnline has analysed Office for National Statistics data to reveal exactly where they are going, and which parts of the county are attracting the biggest influx from the capital.<\/p>\n
Unsurprisingly, Dartford – which borders the London borough of Bexley – tops the list. Of the almost 109,000 people who have moved there since 2011, nearly six in 10 (59.8%) came from London.<\/p>\n
But proximity alone does not explain all the trends.<\/p>\n
At the opposite corner of the county, Folkestone and Hythe has emerged as a major draw, despite being an hour\u2019s drive further from the capital.<\/p>\n
Of the 75,000 people who have relocated to the district since 2011, more than a third (37.7%) were Londoners – a higher proportion than Thanet, home to trendy Margate, and the Canterbury district, which includes long-established DFL magnet Whitstable.<\/p>\n
Canterbury has had the most people move to it overall since 2011, but Dartford has had the highest proportion of Londoners<\/p>\n
Folkestone was named The Sunday Times\u2019 best place to live in the south east last year, but the influx from London was well underway long before.<\/p>\n
So what is pulling people from the capital to the coast?<\/p>\n
Rosie Percy, who relocated from London to Folkestone in 2021, puts it down to affordability, fast rail connections and the town\u2019s sense of community.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always wanted to move to the coast, and Folkestone ticked all the boxes: it had some of the edgy, creative buzz of Brighton and Margate but with fewer amusement arcades and more green spaces, plus an incredible community spirit,\u201d she told KentOnline.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost importantly, it was more affordable, and still accessible for commuting – so it’s not surprising that it’s appealing to lots of other priced-out Londoners, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rosie Percy, who moved to Folkestone from London in 2021. Picture: Instagram\/@coolasfolke<\/p>\n
Miss Percy, who runs the popular @coolasfolke Instagram account, says while she has never faced any issues living in Folkestone, she thinks the DFL label is sometimes used to \u201cdrive a wedge between locals and relocators\u201d.<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cWe’re not looking to replace your community, we want to be a part of it, and help make it the best it can be. I certainly love being here, and I couldn’t imagine myself anywhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just a few miles down the coast, however, the picture looks very different.<\/p>\n
The Dover district recorded both the lowest number of people moving in and the smallest proportion arriving from London – just 15.6% of newcomers since 2011.<\/p>\n
We asked Facebook followers of our sister titles, the East Kent Mercury and Folkestone and Hythe Express, why they thought this might be.<\/p>\n
The pandemic year of 2020-2021 was the single year with the highest movement of people from London to Kent<\/p>\n
Tammy Stewart wrote: \u201cI’m from Folkestone but live in Dover and you definitely get more for your money, more countryside, less crime and more areas out of town than Folkestone has.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, she added that Dover is \u201cdire for shops\u201d and people \u201cgenerally have low aspirations\u201d.<\/p>\n
Garry Loram also criticised its retail offering and said \u201cit’s not as vibrant as Folkestone\u201d.<\/p>\n
Cannon Street in Dover town centre
Deal has been dubbed \u2018Hackney-on-Sea\u2019<\/p>\n
Residents did, however, identify Deal – dubbed \u201cHackney-on-Sea\u201d – as another DFL hotspot, with some warning the influx is making the town increasingly unaffordable for locals.<\/p>\n
Overall, the ONS figures show that almost a third of the 1.4 million people who have moved into Kent since 2011 came from London. Though, of course, because of deaths and emigration \u2013 either out of the county or the UK \u2013 this does not mean Kent\u2019s population has risen by 1.4 million over the same period.<\/p>\n
Cllr Jeremy Kite said the fact 60% of new arrivals to Dartford were from London is not surprising<\/p>\n
Year after year, Dartford has welcomed a higher proportion of Londoners than any other district.<\/p>\n
Cllr Jeremy Kite (Con), who has led Dartford Borough Council for almost two decades, says many of the arrivals will come from Bromley or Bexley.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s basically because we’re close to London and a significant proportion of those will be a relatively short hop,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been forced by consecutive governments, including the current one, to build lots of homes in Dartford as per their housing targets and we know those are outpacing the growth of our own town and thus likely to attract people from elsewhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would choose to build homes for your local need only, but obviously that\u2019s not the policy of successive governments.\u201d<\/p>\n
From 2011-2024, almost one-third of people who moved to Kent came from London<\/p>\n
The Maidstone borough has welcomed the second-highest proportion of DFLs, at 45%.<\/p>\n
The area has also seen extensive housebuilding, with more than 5,000 new homes constructed between 2017 and 2022.<\/p>\n
There are some who believe that building more houses is not the problem, but actually part of the solution.<\/p>\n
Freddie Poser, director of the pro-housebuilding campaign PricedOut, said: \u201cIt’s clear that high housing prices in London price out buyers and renters, pushing them into surrounding counties.<\/p>\n
Freddie Poser, director of campaign group PricedOut<\/p>\n
\u201cThis results in not only longer commutes and a smaller labour market but it also raises prices in areas with good links to London.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe solution is to build more homes, in Kent, London and across the country, to ensure people can choose where they want to live at an affordable price.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From commuter-belt border towns to creative coastal hotspots, Kent is firmly in Londoners\u2019 sights. Every year, thousands of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,2097,19289,29264,393,2418,4884,49585,495,257,9137,2419,48013,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-641699","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-dartford","10":"tag-deal","11":"tag-dover","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-folkestone","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-hythe","16":"tag-kent","17":"tag-london","18":"tag-maidstone","19":"tag-romney-marsh","20":"tag-sandwich","21":"tag-uk","22":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}