On Saturday 21st January, Berkeley, one of the country's leading home builders, launched the first phase of homes at its brand new development, Ryewood, in Dunton Green, Sevenoaks. Over 260 people attended the launch event - which resulted in eleven properties being sold on the day.
Ryewood is set to become a new community of five hundred homes including 2, 3, 4 and 5 bedroom houses, and 1 and 2 bedroom apartments, adjacent to the Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve - just 29 minutes away from London by train.
Offering a wide range of layouts, designs and sizes with contemporary specification, the homes will be set amongst leafy landscaped squares and gardens for all to enjoy, combining the best of city and country living. Dunton Green train station is just a few minutes walk away with trains into London Bridge, Charing Cross and Cannon Street.
In the run up to the launch, Berkeley had over 500 pre-registered applicants who had expressed a keen interest in the development. Jonathan Bateman, Director from Savills explains: "We knew from the pre-registrations that interest in the new homes at Ryewood was high, but to achieve eleven sales in this current market is astonishing. We haven't experienced such high sales at a launch event since the property boom days.
"We currently have a number of prospective purchasers living in rented accommodation, waiting for the right property to come on the market. The success at Ryewood is testament to the fact that there is definitely a need for well designed new build homes in this area."
Tina Dedman, Sales & Marketing Director, from Berkeley comments: "Our aim is to create a true sense of community at Ryewood. We are building a wide range of properties to ensure we appeal to a broad audience, such as first time buyers, couples, families and downsizers alike.
"In spite of such a tough economic climate, interest in the homes across all our developments in Kent remains strong. The overwhelming success of our Ryewood launch at the weekend demonstrates a real confidence in the market to buy properties off plan and that now is a good time to invest."
New research released from Rightmove last week has found that since the start of the year, a mere 34,433 properties have come on to the market, which is around half the level of properties for sale in the same time period before the credit crunch hit. The lack of homes for sale has hugely impacted consumers' online behaviour, with 44 million property searches performed in the first 10 days of 2012 - a 27% increase on the same period last year.
Jonathan at Savills continued: "There is a currently a shortage of homes to buy in the local area. We have a large number of applicants on our books, all keen to buy or move in the Sevenoaks area, and yet the number of homes coming to the market is comparatively low.
Tina at Berkeley concurs: "Over at Holborough Lakes, as housing stocks in the local area are so limited, two of our recent purchasers have just sold their current home and moved into rented accommodation in order to ensure they secured the house they want to buy on the development."
Holborough Lakes is a collection of houses and apartments set in acres of parkland with an onsite gym, crèche, lake and diving centre.