WhatHouse? On Tour: Empire Park, Greenhithe

The WhatHouse? team leaves the office behind to take Fernham Homes’ invitation to look around its Empire Park development in the north Kent village of Greenhithe.

We take the train from London Bridge and it’s a very straightforward journey to Greenhithe for Bluewater station. There’s a quick car journey from the station and we turn off a street to park. Ahead of us the landscape descends and it’s as we walk down from here that we find out why Fernham refers to it as a ‘hidden valley’. We reach the bottom and there are a lot of (protected) trees around its edges and it definitely feels detached from the streets around it – very quiet (when the construction work pauses) and spacious. The mobile signal is fine, so its hidden location doesn’t compromise connectivity to the rest of the world. 

There’s a welcoming party for us, with Lynne, Paul, Michael, Amelia and Hayley from the Fernham team outside the show home. We recently took a look around this property but this is a great opportunity to see it first-hand. There’s a very homely feel to it – some show houses are immaculate but make you feel guilty for stepping on the floor or opening a kitchen cupboard, but not this one. 
It’s the first property you reach from the road down onto the site, and it heads up the first phase here. This, and the property opposite, have a distinctive white render finish that stands out from all the others built and under construction on the site. It’s not for sale yet, but the Fernham team tell us there has been a great deal of interest and admiration for the show home due to interior and exterior design.

We take a look down this first phase street. There are seven more homes here, a mix of four- and five-bedroom houses styles are standard Fernham Homes designs but tweaked externally to add character to distinguish from neighbours – and this housebuilder also updates internal features based on buyer feedback from previous developments. Customers are very important here, and even small changes to layout or specification can enhance things for future buyers.

Lynne Smith, head of sales and marketing for Fernham Homes, comments: “It is vitally important to us that we always bear in mind our customers’ needs and requirements. We are constantly updating our designs and specs, in order to ensure that our customers will be happy in their new homes, and always seek to accommodate any requests that they may have before, during, or after the build.”

These are the first nine homes (all of which are now sold) on the 28-unit private development. This street curves to the left at the end, to follow the green edge of the site and will lead around to another collection of ‘The Heathers’ and ‘The Honeysuckle’ four-beds and ‘The Primrose’ five-beds.

There’s plenty of work going on for the next phase, which heads left from the show home on another cul de sac. Between the two streets, the centre of the site will have seven three-bedroom ‘The Ferns’ houses. As with every home here, they’ll come with a garage and private parking spaces as well as a patio and spacious garden. This development also comes with a children’s play area that will be very handy for young families, and a number of visitor parking spaces.

Lynne said: “The homes at Empire Park have appealed to a variety of different buyers. However, they have proven to be particularly popular with young couples who are looking to take their first step onto the property ladder, and growing families searching for a bit more space without paying steep London prices.”

It’s not just the secluded setting that will appeal to many house-hunters here. The M25 and A2 are both just a few minutes’ drive away. Rail connections in this part of Kent are superb: services from Greenhithe for Bluewater station (six minutes by car, eight cycling there or around 20 on foot) you can head to London Bridge (taking 36-49 minutes), London Charing Cross (46 minutes), London Victoria (59 minutes) and London St Pancras International (49-59 minutes), all on direct services.

Ebbsfleet International is ten minutes away by road and has a 17-minute High Speed journey time to King’s Cross St Pancras.

Knockhall Primary School opened in January 2017 – there's no Ofsted rating yet, but it’s a three-minute drive from home here. Craylands Primary is only four minutes away and has a ‘Good’ rating. Ebbsfleet Academy, for 11- to 18-year-olds, is also rated ‘Good’.

Lynne adds: “The location of Empire Park has been a huge draw for commuting professionals, with Greenhithe station within walking distance and offering direct services to the capital in less than 40 minutes. The additional convenience of being close to Bluewater shopping centre and multiple good schools means that the development really does have something for everyone.”

There’s currently a range of houses on the market at Empire Park. The three-bedroom, semi-detached ‘The Ferns’ range from £440,000 to £465,000; ‘The Heathers’ four-bedroom detached range from £575,000 to £585,000; and there are three of the other four-bedroom option, the detached ‘The Honeysuckle’, all priced at £585,000. The government-backed Help to Buy scheme is available of all of them.

The marketing suite and show home are open seven days a week, from 10.00am to 4.00pm, contactable on 01322 472 917. Find out more here. Please tell the team there you heard about it through Whathouse.com    
 
Take a look at the show home video here: