Not wanting to live near council housing

Mancs477 · 2021-04-16 23:47:57

We are in the process of looking for our first place to buy and have found a development we love and a home at the right price. We’ve been twice to have a look at the plot we are interested in. The first time we visited I was too interested in the specifics of the house to look properly around the actual development, but we’ve been back today to have a good walk around the place. We noticed that there is a very nearby row of houses which look slightly different to the others - different roof tiles and front doors. It was just after midday and it caught my eye that a lot of these houses still had the curtains closed, and there were a couple of women standing outside in their dressing gowns, chatting away. One of them was shouting loudly at her dog, whose appeared to be trying to get out of her front door, and the whole row looked a bit scruffy generally. We then saw somebody pull up on one of the driveways with their music blasting out, two people got out and they were shouting at each other!! Before going in to their house and slamming the door. On the site plan, these homes are listed as Affordable Housing, and on enquiring in the sales office, we were told that these are “social rented”. We were told about how these days they have to build a proportion of any development with social housing and that can be shared ownership or full blown council rental. We didn’t know any of this prior to today. We came away and did some research and discovered that it’s common knowledge that living near social housing can unfortunately de-value your property, I was very shocked at this and it is making us certainly think twice about the purchase as we want to move up the property chain. I’m fully aware that you could have problems with any neighbour, whether they are renting, council tenants, owners... there are good and bad in all walks of life. But we both did notice how different this particular area of the development felt. Unfortunately this evening I’ve had a massive falling out with my sister over this. She and her family live in a council house and she feels I am being a massive snob. We speak every day and are very close usually.. which is why I told her our thoughts on the house after we had been back for a second look around today. She lives in an older council development and it really is truly awful around there. She feels I am looking down on others and that we should buy the house and ‘put up with it’ even though we have the concerns I’ve just mentioned. We both work long hours and have worked our backsides off for several years, I’ve had two jobs for a while now, to be able to afford to get on the property ladder at last, we want this to be the right move for a happy life and I don’t see what’s wrong with wanting things to be as nice as possible. I have friends from many different walks of life in many different housing situations and personally I feel that I am far from a snob. I believe that everybody needs a place to live and totally understand the need for social housing but don’t want to get into a bad situation. Should I get a grip and buy the house or follow my gut instincts and stay away?!

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Thanks for the many reports. We've taken this one down whilst we check one or two things out behind the scenes