What it's like to live in Ashford

Ashford Borough Council is by far the biggest social landlord in the area with over 5,100 homes, followed by Moat Homes, West Kent Housing Association, Southern Housing and Clarion. If you are exchanging, there is a fair chance you will be dealing with one of those five.

Social renting makes up 14% of homes across the borough, a little below the England figure of 17.1%, split between council at 8.9% and housing associations at 5.1%. Two thirds of homes are owned outright or on a mortgage, and 17.7% are privately rented.

Average weekly social rents in 2024/25 were about £99 for a one bed, £115 for two beds and £125 for three. The age profile is fairly even, with slightly more over 45s than the national average, so you get a mix of young families, working-age households and older residents on the same streets.

Families have plenty of primary schools within easy reach of the centre. Victoria Road Primary, St Mary's Church of England, St Teresa's Catholic Primary, Ashford Oaks Community Primary and Saint Simon of England R.C. are all inside a mile, so most central addresses have several options rather than one. Check current places and catchments with the council before you commit to a swap.

For older children there is The North School, The Wyvern School and Towers School and Sixth Form Centre, all within two miles.

Outside school, the town is well set up for children. Memorial Gardens, Civic Park and Queen Mother Park are all close to the centre, and Ashford Library is right in the middle of town, with Bockhanger and Stanhope libraries serving other parts. Across the wider borough, 19.5% of residents are under 16, slightly above the England average, so this is a place used to families.

Ashford International station is about a third of a mile from the town centre, so for many households a train is genuinely walkable rather than a drive-and-park job. That one station carries a lot of weight here, and it shapes where people choose to live in the town.

Buses are well covered in the centre. The Park Street stops, four of them, and North Street sit within a few minutes' walk of the main shops, which makes travelling into town from outlying estates and nearby villages straightforward without a car.

If you drive, Ashford is an easy town to get around and out of, with retail parks on the edge of the centre for a bigger shop. On foot, the central area is flat and compact: shops, library, pharmacies and pubs cluster within a few hundred metres of each other. The Ashford Green Corridor gives walkers and cyclists a route through town that keeps you off the main roads for stretches.

For a town this size, Ashford has a decent spread. County Square and Elwick Place sit in the centre, with Warren Retail Park and designer outlet stores such as Columbia and GANT less than a mile out, so shopping is a real local pastime here rather than something you drive miles for.

There are three cinemas within a mile: The Ashford Cinema in the centre, Cineworld, and Eureka Entertainment Park. Pubs are thick on the ground in town, including The Phoenix, The New Swan, The George Hotel and The Players Bar, with DurBAR and Cameo for a later night.

If you want to keep active, gyms are everywhere in the centre, among them Snap Fitness, The Gym Group, Anytime Fitness and Studio Cycling. Ashford Arts Centre, Ashford Community Network and The Riverside Centre run community activity, and the parks and Green Corridor give you free space for the rest of it.

Work in Ashford leans on the town centre itself: retail across County Square, Elwick Place and the retail parks, plus hospitality, health services and the businesses that come with a busy transport hub.

The numbers in the wider borough are healthy. Around 59.6% of adults are in work, above the England figure of 57.4%, and unemployment sits at 2.9% against 3.5% nationally. Benefit claimants among 16 to 64 year olds were 2.9% in August 2026, again below the England rate of 4%.

The station matters for jobs too. Plenty of people here work elsewhere and commute, which widens your options if your trade or profession is thin on the ground locally. Healthcare is another visible employer, with Spire Ashford Clinic, Sydenham House Medical Centre, Musgrove Park Medical Centre and Bupa Health Centre all within a mile of the centre.