To buy my first house two minutes down the street from traveller housing initiative?

Unfortunately we had travellers come local to my old house - we were warned to take everything in that wasn’t bolted down. They parked on a local green area and destroyed it. The kids I wanted to give them a chance and the adults and not try to be biased but the local Tesco was ransacked and they just walked in and took what they wanted no attempt to pay. They were violent and attacked some of the local kids and one woman walking her dog was attacked by the travellers in the park. It took weeks to clean it up when they left and it was vile.

In this case you need to think about resale - would someone else be put off and you can see from the answers here that the answer is yes.

No way if they are anything like the traveller communities in England.
Absolutely no way.

I live near a small traveller settlement (caravans/mobile homes) and I’d lived in my house a few years before I found out it was there! Never had any problems with anyone there and their children have gone through the nursery I work at some got to know them through that and they were all nice, down to earth people. It wouldn’t necessarily put me off.

Have you never considered taking the higher moral ground? If bigoted people are truly showing prejudice against you for absurd supposed behaviours that you would never actually dream of doing, the best way to shame them and show them up for their small-minded stupidity is to go high when they go low and to demonstrate that you are much better people than they are.

Can't you see that, if you seek to punish them for telling nasty lies about you by doing exactly what they're saying about you, their 'lies' become the truth and you only go on to prove to them that they must have been right all along?

No - unless you want your metal gates nicked and mountains of fly tipping

Don’t do it OP, and it does make me feel bad to say that but it’s too much money and too much risk.

I grew up in the west of Ireland in a town with a large traveller population. I was reared in a council estate with travellers directly opposite and in other houses in the estate. When we moved in, we had little trouble with the parents opposite and their 8 children. I was very good friends with 2 of the children in particular.

Then the children grew up and it was carnage. We couldn’t so much as leave a mat on the front doorstep because it would be stolen. Absolutely everything we left outside was always stolen. The children then started marrying and pulling caravans into the driveways and onto the green areas. Horrendous rubbish in the green areas, dogs running wild, horses emaciated and tethered in tiny green areas, houses kept pristine though. Witnessing weekly domestic abuse of women across the road was horrendous. There were instances where vans pulled up and gangs of men with bats and machetes came and terrorised the neighbourhood looking for members of the family. There were 2 cars set on fire right outside my childhood home and many other dramatic instances.

Of the 8 children, 3 are severely disabled (parents are first cousins), and were a danger to anyone who found themselves alone with them. One was murdered by his own brother and others with machetes at a funeral in front of the grieving family and children. He’s now in prison. Another just died recently, while awaiting trial for another violent offence.

I’ve met lovely travellers, but unfortunately they are very few and far between. What most travellers see as their cultural rights are not compatible with civilised society and you will regret trapping yourself in this house that won’t sell if it all goes wrong.

No if you look upthread at least one poster is telling of their experience of housing provided for travellers being burned down and caravans put on the site.

They are successful in the sense that they pay for no social amenities, take what they want, and are immune from normal laws.

My personal experience in Dorset, as a horse owner, is that they steal anything they can get their hands on, they shit and piss everywhere, and they are legally protected because they are: "travelers!" They get legal protection because they are not the full ticket. I get that, but I wouldn't buy a house near them.

The travellers in my family have been banned from many designated sites due to feuding/fighting with other travellers.

And also because they don't want to pay the rent, waste disposal, gas, electric and water fees that comes with using the designated sites.

So to the PP who said they're successful, some are and some really are not.

The vast majority of Travellers are settled and live in houses, in Ireland it's about 80%.

Not a chance, which feels a bit shit to say as I’m quite sure it isn’t the case that every single traveller is a problem… but the overwhelming majority, in my experience, have been, so much so that it’s been impossible to discern any decent ones among the ones who seem to thrive on fighting, stealing, scamming elderly and vulnerable people, exhibiting aggressive and destructive behaviour as a default and abusing animals. The few spoiling it for the many? Perhaps. I’d certainly like to believe so. But it isn’t a risk I’d take.

No, do not buy this house.

Even though they are given houses, they happily defecate in the street! They don't like houses, they like travelling! Not for me!

I wouldn’t.

The travellers that pitch up from time to time in my rather boring town always leave a trail of havoc. A few months back they broke into the local playing field/football pitch, the kids teams have weekend matches which all needed to be cancelled. There is a small Tesco next to it; I know the staff there and they told me the kids were being instructed to take trolleys and basically fill them to the brim for the parents (who were actually there and instructing them what to steal) and then just walk out.
When they eventually got moved on, there was the obviously huge pile of fly tipped crap to clean up.

Another incident, they pitched up in the leisure centre car park next to the outdoor astroturf pitches. When a stray ball happened to hit one of their (extremely flash) caravans, they came out and threatened the young kids playing with baseball bats and their dogs.

Im sorry I don’t have any positive stories to balance out my perspectives as I expect most of us don’t. Its no surprise the comments on this thread as it seems most have had similar experiences.

Yes, do you even need to ask that question?

You are talking about sites, which is a different scenario from the 6 houses OP is talking about. I work with Travellers and don't live far from the estate where they live. Majority of them are from a few families and have lived in the area over several generations. The men certainly have long criminal records and spend time in/out of jail, but they don't bring any trouble to their area.
@Waitingforthesunnydays the UK government is supposed to provide "culturally appropriate" housing for Travellers and there have been various schemes around the UK where these initiatives have worked well.

So that’s the answer then

No, you are not a registered breeder

Yes another reason why living next door to travellers would be hell on earth to most

Travellers aren’t a race FYI. They’re an ethnic community

This.

I don’t live in south dublin and can think of 3 halting sites that had “settled” housing off the top of my head that I would have knowledge of. Labray Park, Ballyfermot. Nutgrove and Stocking lane Rathfarnham. Nutgrove is completely gone. Every single house burned to the ground. And in labray and Stocking lane if there’s even 20% of the houses left I’d be surprised. They been burnt down and caravans now stood on the site. I have friends that live within spitting distance of the Rathfarnham site and the antisocial behaviour is shocking. Horses wandering out into the road, rubbish dumped all around the area and cars and vans speeding in the vicinity. In saying that it doesn’t stop people buying houses at least around there. There’s such a demand people are prepare to put up with the possibility of issues but it wouldn’t be me

Whenever travellers took over a car park in the small Yorkshire market town I lived in there was a huge clean up needed costing the council- so council tax payers - tens of thousands of £££
The car park was next to the river - just a small one - and the place would have all sorts of shit thrown in. I remember tv boxes and the old tvs were just dumped in the river.
Shops shut because the kids would steal. Everything that wasn’t nailed down was considered fair game by them whether it was in shops or people’s gardens.
The worst thing though was that every time all of the mallard ducks which the town had, loved and took care of, all vanished. Every time. The utter bastards were killing and eating them. Money for huge tellys, money for cars costing £70k but not enough to go to Tesco.
The sterotype exists for a reason,

DONT BUY THE HOUSE, Your life will be a misery and you will never sell it or loose tens/hundreds of thousands

Sorry op, it's a no from me. It's bad enough living on new builds where huge families move in (kids playing in people's private garden, parking spaces stolen etc.) but a traveller initiative would have me pulling out.

The few posts from experience?

Nearly every post is setting out their lived experience. You are an outlier and the post you quote doesnt live with or near travellers, merely works with Travellers (and its not clear under what circumstances)

The police go in pairs, SWs go in pairs, tradesmen go in pairs, most sites are littered with abused animals and literal shit.