Two years ago transport boss Mike Beer sold his haulage company and went into property development with his son-in-law Dave Le Hegarat.

It could have been out of the frying pan and into the fire, but their first project, three substantial houses in Hythe, has been a resounding success. Within weeks of going on the market two of the five-bedroom houses have already sold. George Ward met two happy developers.

Seabrook Road is the kind of quietly prosperous area that house hunters immediately warm to. It is south facing, looking out across the Channel. It is protected from the sea by a golf course, and is shaded by a rich collection of mature trees.

Within easy walking distance, Hythe offers a fine selection of shops, including Waitrose, and a good selection of restaurants. And next year the high-speed rail link will bring it in easy reach of London.

It was on the principal road that Mike and Dave found a long-neglected stretch of overgrown land with permission for three houses.

The railway used to run behind it, and before work began they had an enjoyable time removing covenants on the land from British Rail days.

Once the paperwork was in order, they could go to work. With 15 years in the building industry, 10 as a site manager, Dave was adamant he wanted to build houses that would, eventually, sell on the reputation of the company name. "It’s BMWs, not Fords, we are building."

With permission already granted, they had little leeway in the size and shape of the houses, but have worked hard on the interiors to produce three houses with distinctly different feels to them.

What unites them is a restrained sense of quality. There is no one obvious wow factor. Instead there is a quiet sense of rightness to them: the proportions are good, the details are thoughtful and of high quality, the layouts make sense, and the overall impression is of homes made to comfort and nurture the buyer.

These are not ego trip constructions by style-crazed Grand Design junkies. No-one is going to feel intimidated walking into a Whiteacre home.

The rooms are light and, on the ground floor, flow into each other with a pleasing sense of connectivity.

The bedrooms have superb views over the golf course, where cars and pedestrians on the beach road appear to be walking on the water.

Sea Spray, the last house still for sale, has a lounge, dining room, study, family room kitchen/breakfast room and utility room on the ground floor, with two en suite bedrooms, each with their own decked balconies, three further bedrooms and bathroom on the second.

techy stuff

Whiteacre has installed state-of-the-art entertainment systems in its houses, with Opus Octopus multi-room audio and video distribution systems. This delivers sound and vision from a central location.

Cables hidden in the walls carry entertainment to each room where stylish wall keypads and quality ceiling speakers provide total control over what is being listened to and watched.

Octopus allows you to connect up to six pieces of audio and/or video equipment and your choice of TV screens. The system is compatible with virtually every consumer electronics brand. That means a multi-play (or single) CD player, radio tuner, satellite digi-box or even a 1,000 song MP3/hard-disc recorder can now be controlled and enjoyed in every room.

The keypads give control over functions (play, stop, skip etc). They also allow control of volume, bass, treble and more.

The Octopus keypads feature an infra-red eye to enable use of the system’s remote control and/or the remote controls of the source equipment anywhere in the house.

factfile

Sea Spray, Seabrook Road, Hythe

Joint agents: Cluttons on 01227 457441

Champions on 01303 260666

Price: £735,000