Restoring Continuity: Housing, Heritage, and Community in Thanet

On a clear afternoon in Cliftonville, sunlight falls across a terrace of Victorian houses with peeling paint and patched roofs. They were built in the 1880s for middle-class families seeking clean air and sea views. Their walls, of brick fired in Kentish kilns, still stand solid. Yet behind the façades, the story is one of profound tension: of families pushed out, investors arriving in, and a community caught in the undertow of a speculative housing market.

Thanet—the corner of Kent that wraps Margate, Broadstairs, and Ramsgate—has long been a place of flux. In the twentieth century it saw decline, its once-grand boarding houses cut into bedsits. Now, after years of disinvestment, it finds itself the focus of national media attention and speculative capital. But as house prices and rents surge, the question facing Thanet is not simply whether it will revive, but who it will revive for.

The Displaced

Local reporting in recent years has highlighted the plight of residents suddenly priced out of their homes. One teaching assistant in Cliftonville described being forced to move after her landlord raised the rent by nearly a third in a single year. Others, in a prominent seafront tower block, saw annual hikes of between 25 and 36 percent. Many of the affected tenants were pensioners or families on modest incomes, facing the impossible choice between eviction and debt.

For these long-term residents, the town’s much-publicised revival feels less like renewal and more like exclusion. Their connection to place—family, work, community—remains, but the affordability that underpinned it is evaporating.

The Investors

At the same time, there are investors who see opportunity in restoration rather than exploitation. Several derelict guesthouses near the seafront have been purchased in recent years, not for demolition, but for careful repair. Local contractors have been employed to reinstate cornices, repair sash windows, and return neglected buildings to habitable use.

Developers in this mould argue that without private capital, many of Margate’s Victorian houses would simply collapse. By bringing them back into circulation—some sold, some rented—they see themselves as contributing to the town’s renewal. The suspicion of “outsiders” remains, but their investments have undeniably created jobs and preserved architectural character.

The Airbnb Dilemma

Between these poles lies the phenomenon reshaping the market most forcefully: Airbnb. In 2022, campaigners counted nearly 300 short-term lets in Margate and only 15 long-term rentals on the market. In nearby Whitstable, the ratio was even starker, with entire streets reportedly dark for much of the year.

For local businesses, this shift has been double-edged. Café owners note that summer trade from visitors keeps them afloat, but their staff often struggle to find accommodation nearby. One young worker was reported as commuting two hours each way for a minimum-wage job in Margate—a bitter irony in a town full of empty flats.

Policy and Pushback

Some in local government have tried to stem the tide. The Live Margate programme, a £23.1-million regeneration effort, is buying up derelict terraces in Cliftonville West and Margate Central, converting them back into family homes. One project will see a neglected block transformed into ten new council flats, prioritising stability over churn.

The aim is modest but vital: to rebalance a housing stock distorted by subdivision and speculation, and to anchor families in neighbourhoods that have seen too much turnover. The challenge is scale—such interventions move slowly compared with the pace of private investment and tourist demand.

The Entrepreneurs

Meanwhile, new businesses have brought fresh energy to the town. Bars, galleries, and creative spaces have opened in once-vacant shopfronts, contributing to Margate’s reputation as a cultural hub. Many of these entrepreneurs acknowledge their ambivalent role: they revive the high street but also accelerate the very rent pressures that displace locals.

The paradox is palpable. The buzz of new venues attracts visitors and attention, yet for those who grew up in the town, continuity is harder to sustain.

Heritage and Waste

Underlying all of this is the architecture itself. Victorian and Edwardian houses, though sometimes derelict, are inherently robust—built with thick walls, high ceilings, and natural ventilation. With sensitive restoration they can outlast most new builds. In contrast, poorly designed modern flats across the country have been reported to overheat in summer and age badly within years.

The irony is stark: Britain is discarding durable, repairable housing stock in favour of disposable construction, wasting both embodied carbon and cultural value.

Comparative Currents: Beyond Thanet

Thanet is not unique. Across the South of England, the same struggle plays out.

In St Ives, Cornwall, the rise of second homes and holiday lets became so acute that residents voted in 2016 to restrict new-builds from being sold as second homes—a controversial but telling intervention.

In Whitstable, locals describe winter streets darkened by empty cottages, as homes once lived in year-round become weekend retreats. The town thrives during its oyster festival but risks becoming hollowed out the rest of the year.

In Brighton, a combination of student demand and short-term lets has driven rents to record highs, leaving workers in the hospitality and creative sectors priced out. The city’s reputation for inclusivity is strained by a lack of affordable housing.

Together, these examples suggest that Thanet’s tensions are part of a broader, systemic pattern: the collision between speculative markets and the need for rooted communities.

Restoration as Resistance

And yet, Thanet also offers examples of resistance through restoration.

On Dalby Square, once a byword for deprivation, a Townscape Heritage Initiative grant funded the repair of façades and the reinstatement of lost details. One villa became a model of low-carbon living, retrofitted to passivhaus standards while preserving its Victorian character.

At Cliff Terrace, community campaigners fought for the restoration of the historic colonnade, stabilising its columns and reopening shopfronts to local businesses. What was once derelict now serves as a hub for independent cafés and shops.

On Sweyn Road, notorious guesthouses were purchased under the Live Margate programme and converted back into family homes, complete with repaired staircases and reinstated cornices. Families moved in, schools stabilised, and tradespeople found work in heritage repair.

On Edgar Road, a large derelict building is being transformed into ten council flats at a cost of £2.79 million. Rather than demolishing, the council opted for adaptive reuse—a deliberate choice to preserve both building fabric and community affordability.

Each case demonstrates that continuity is possible when funding, craft, and community align.

The Role of Public Funding

Public investment has been pivotal in these transformations.

• The Heritage Lottery Fund has financed repairs, training in conservation skills, and the adaptive reuse of historic buildings.
• Historic England has supported urgent works and provided capacity for councils to manage heritage-led regeneration.
• The Town Deal brought £22.2 million to Margate in 2021, earmarked partly for heritage and cultural-led renewal.
• Kent County Council has run empty homes initiatives, offering loans to owners who bring properties back into use.
• The Community Housing Fund has given grassroots groups a chance to acquire housing for local families rather than investors.

These mechanisms are imperfect—often bureaucratic, sometimes underfunded—but they form a scaffolding that allows communities to fight back against market churn.

A Holistic Path Forward

What emerges in Thanet is not a simple battle between locals and incomers, or between nostalgia and progress. It is the struggle to reconcile different needs:

• Continuity for families, who require stable rents and long-term security.
• Space for entrepreneurs, who bring energy and jobs.
• Investment for restoration, which rescues heritage and sustains traditional skills.
• Limits on speculation, so homes remain homes, not hollow assets.

A holistic solution would integrate these strands. That means stronger guardrails on short-term lets, incentives for restoration over demolition, and protections for long-term tenants. It means reframing success not by the number of “units delivered” but by the number of homes sustained.

The Stakes

Thanet today stands at a crossroads. It could become another case study in transience—a place hollowed out by speculative fervor, full of stylish bars and empty flats. Or it could chart a rarer course, showing how a coastal town can balance revival with rootedness.

The sea has always been the constant here, relentless against the chalk cliffs. The question is whether the houses above—the restored terraces, the repaired colonnades, the repurposed guesthouses—will endure as homes, not commodities. With grants, vision, and community resolve, they can. Without them, Thanet risks becoming yet another English seaside postcard town: photogenic, hollow, and transient.

Data and Context

Airbnb Saturation

• Margate: ~300 short-term lets vs. 15 long-term rentals (2022 snapshot).
• Whitstable: among the highest Airbnb densities per capita in the UK.
• St Ives: referendum in 2016 banned most new-builds from becoming second homes.

Rental Inflation

• Thanet private rents rose over 30% between 2020–2022.
• Average flat/maisonette rents in Kent up nearly 10% year-on-year (2024).
• Margate Central average rent: ~£1,066/month.

Ownership & Affordability

• First-time buyers in the South East face deposits of 8–10 times local salaries.
• Coastal towns report some of the sharpest affordability gaps in England.

Community Impact

• Some Margate tenants reported rent hikes of 25–36% in a single year.
• Local services—schools, GPs, dentists—strained by transient populations.
• Traditional trades (brick pointing, sash-window repair, lime plastering) risk decline without stronger support for restoration.