On Folkestone’s seafront, the Shoreline Crescent development brings California modernism to the South Coast, with flats priced from £395,000 to £1.75m. Many remain uninhabited or listed on Airbnb for over £1,000 a night, while around 1,500 households in Folkestone and Hythe wait for social housing, with only about 300 homes becoming available each year.
Local residents at the Folkestone Book Festival interrupted a Q&A to highlight unaffordable rent hikes. Several said they were artists encouraged to move to the town with 'affordable' rents by Creative Folkestone, a charitable trust that runs the Creative Folkestone Triennial and the town's Creative Quarter. The trust owns homes and commercial properties in the area.
Folkestone has undergone a facelift since the Triennial began in 2008, with harbour redevelopment and nationally recognised restaurants. In 2024, the Sunday Times named it the best place to live in south-east England. However, not everyone benefits equally: full-time workers in Folkestone and Hythe have some of the lowest weekly earnings in the region, and 15.6% of children live in poverty, above the national average.
Rents in Folkestone rose by 15% between November 2023 and 2024, according to the ONS. One resident said: 'Shoreline Crescent symbolises the aspirations of a few and the despair of many.' Another added: 'There is a class struggle in this town. I’m very worried about being priced out of my hometown.'
Despite national requirements for 10% of new homes to be 'affordable' or social, Folkestone and Hythe District Council confirmed there is no affordable housing at Shoreline Crescent, citing viability constraints. Roger De Haan, the developer behind the project and a director at Creative Folkestone, has invested heavily in the town, but artists feel his priority is profit, not community.
Rob Birch, 61, an artist who moved to Folkestone in 2020, can no longer afford the rent charged by Creative Folkestone. The situation highlights the tension between the town's artistic revival and the rising cost of living that threatens to displace the very people who helped transform it.
