Semi-detached with social housing

As PP said, the 3 flats means a lot of neighbours. Potentially noisy, but the structure of the building will make a big difference to the noise level.

If I’d visited at different times of the day and evening and it appeared fine, it wouldn’t put me off. But I’m not troubled by ordinary everyday living noise - I quite like the hum of people around me, I live in London, if I wanted silence I’d move somewhere placid. My parents live somewhere very quiet and conversely they have more issues with noise as a result as several neighbours are intolerant of ordinary noise like children, cars arriving and departing very late or very early, and DIY.

The vast majority of people in social housing are just decent people getting on with their lives, but the problem is when you end up with one of the minority who are not as a neighbour because the threshold for the landlord obtaining possession is so high, antisocial behaviour has to have reached serious levels and tenants given significant chances to change. It’s a risk, but with the new renters’ rights act I suspect it’s likely to become more of an issue even with private tenants next door due to the greater burden on landlords to demonstrate provable grounds for possession and pursue it through the courts.

Nope, sorry, I’m a snob, but nope.

Is it that the house next door has been converted into three flats so you have one sharing a wall on each floor? I would have concerns with this, not because they’re council flats, but just because you’re sharing a wall with three separate households and the chances of having a bad neighbour are increased by that.

Also, if it is a conversion rather than being purpose built, there might be a fair bit of noise transference depending on the quality of the conversion.

On the other hand, I lived in a small purpose built block in SE London, which was built in the ‘50s and it was really well built and we had absolutely no issues with noise.

Have you had a look round?

I wouldn't want to live next to three flats, no matter what tenure the housing is. Three times more chance that one of them will be a terrible neighbour! As someone who has an attached nightmare neighbour I would give anything to live in a detached house. Is there no way you could extend or do a loft conversion etc?

Nothing to do with Social Housing, but a house converted into (presumably small) flats is likely to have different lifestyles yo a family. Parking, noise etc.
They might not appreciate family noise either

Would your house share a wall with all three flats?
Like would yours be a three storey house with a flat attached to each floor?

The fact its social housing wouldn't be as much of an issue for me as the fact its three flats. If you're attached to all three then you're trebling your risk of troublesome neighbours.

Either way, no I wouldn't.

But then again I wouldn't move from a detached house to a semi-detached. Is there any possibility to extend the house you're currently in?

You say "looks shabby from the outside" - do you mean the house or the flats?

I would not be keen to share a wall with three flats (whether social housing or not). As that gives you three times the chance of one of them being very problematic and wrecking your life.

I would also be a bit concerned that if something went terribly wrong (like the wall falling down) then I would have to deal with the council rather than a person.

I live in social housing - I was incredibly fortunate to be given a lovely home by the council when me and my boys left a very toxic household. Most of my neighbours are now privately owned houses but there’s a few of us renters scattered around the street. I can hand on heart honestly say it’s the most wonderful community I’ve ever been fortunate enough to live in. Even the dodgy lot three doors down will do anything for you! Never judge - ever.

I live in a council house attached to a bought house. They're no problem at all. I can hear them doing DIY and I hear the teenage girls running up the stairs occasionally but overall no noise at all.

Nightmare neighbours really are the pits. I can’t comment on whether this is more or less likely being adjacent to social housing. The two examples I know of were social housing. But I know lots of great people in social housing. The key thing is probably trying to find out what these particular neighbours are like. I would go so far as to see if I can chat to people down the street and ask what the street is like.

I used to live un a terrace that was 50/50 private and council. Zero issues beyond normal neighbour stuff. The absolute arseholes of the road were the couple who put cones on the road to save "their" parking space and they were private owners