To worry about potential anti social behaviour if we move to this new town?

[OuEstCoco]

Hi, I really hope this OP doesn't cause any offence as I know that this can be a very, very tricky subject. Apologies if it does.

Anyway, DH and I are renting but hoping to be able to buy a house of our own some day. At the moment, we don't have the standard huge deposit needed for a normal mortgage and DH's debts (circa £10,000) mean we wouldn't be approved for any of the 95-100% mortgage schemes either. We've been told that we should qualify for a shared ownership mortgage, however.

We're in East Devon and live near to the new eco-town Cranbrook that's in the process of being built. There are apparently going to be a good number of shared ownership properties available there, so we're seriously considering that as an option.

What we're less sure about though, is whether the high proportion of social housing (roughly one third of the properties in Cranbrook will be designated 'affordable housing', with about a third of those properties being shared ownership and the other two thirds housing association rental) could mean that there may be problems with anti social behaviour.

I'm certainly not saying that I think that all, or even the majority of social housing tenants would be difficult neighbours. It really isn't that. DH and I are very ordinary people with no delusions that we're posh in any way. But the council estates in our town do have significant levels of anti social behaviour and social problems, especially compared with elsewhere in the area. Obviously it's only a minority of people that behave this way but there do seem to be more of them in social housing areas. As I said, I'm not implying that everyone is like that.

We might be worrying about nothing. If it was all ok in terms of neighbours not being a PITA, then this would be such a fantastic opportunity to have our own place. If we don't do this then it will be 4-5 years before we'll be able to pay off DH's debts and save for the deposit on a 95% mortgage, assuming that they're even available then.

I really can't emphasise enough that I don't think that most social housing tenants are inconsiderate neighbours. It's just that the high concentration of social housing in this development makes me worry that there may be a larger number of people who make life difficult for others.

Am I being unreasonable to worry about this?

I grew up on a council estate, it was and still is calm quiet and you'll never see police about, my mum still lives there.

Me and dp moved to a council estate last year in the next town and its hell on earth, loud music, dangerous driving, drinking, glass everywhere, its like shameless, were leaving asap.

I think I would be at least as worried about the flood plain tbh as you could be very fortunate with your neighbours but a flood will get you all

I would rather rent in a nice area and save for the area I want if that makes sense but that's just me. But I lived in 2 ex council houses and had lovely neighbours in both, I really did my homework beforehand though and knew they were good areas and desirable estates (social workers are good people to ask believe it or not!). In fact tbh most of them had been bought privately, the council tenants there were delighted to be there and were settled family people. It can be more of a problem in blocks of flats, especially where there are younger, single people in flats (e.g. kids who have come out of care who can be very vulnerable, attract the worst sort of scumbags who prey upon them).

BTW don't be surprised if this thread is hijacked and derailed or you are accused of all sorts of snobbery, these threads are like a red rag to a bull for some people. It's a very MN thing. Lots of people seem to think you are automatically criticising all council estates / housing associations etc when it is clear to anyone that there is a HUGE variation between them all.

Hope you find somewhere! :)

NoVeg / Confusion that is really crap :( The difference is HUGE between estates. I was buying my first house in Belfast and a lot of the estates have massive problems with sectarianism / paramilitaries. I was fortunate enough to have a few friends who were social workers and they literally named the streets I should look in. I was able to buy a bargain house in a lovely quiet street, removed from any madness. A quarter of a mile away it was a different world - the kind of place that makes it onto the national news. Where I lived was an oasis and a relative who was in the police was also able to buy a house there and live there safely. We were also able to sell up and move on too.

Why the hell would anyone think it was a good idea to build on a flood plain! Bloody stupid idea!

My family live on a council estate which is a mixture of council, ex council (been bought in right to buy) and housing association. I grew up there. The neighbours are housing association and they are fucking arse holes. Drug dealing, anti social, law breaking, robbing, arse holes. They are by no means the only ones. There have always been quite a proportion on the estate like that.

For that reason alone i would never buy a place on a council or housing association estate or mixed estate. I just wouldn't take the risk as they can and do make your life hell.

Its awful really because they give the others a bad name, and plenty of the others are lovely, normal, law abiding people.

I live on a privately owned street and its such a relief not to have to put up with that shit, although my family still live there so am constantly worried about them

BTW don't be surprised if this thread is hijacked and derailed or you are accused of all sorts of snobbery, these threads are like a red rag to a bull for some people. It's a very MN thing. Lots of people seem to think you are automatically criticising all council estates / housing associations etc when it is clear to anyone that there is a HUGE variation between them all.

Yeah there was one fairly recently. Lots turned up saying how these places don't really exist because they live on a council estate and its lovely. So those who live or grew up in shit ones are imagining it then?!

There is good and bad of everything in life. Its definitely something i would be super careful about though.

Thanks Lili, it's good to hear that you haven't had any problems where you are, sounds like there are lots of places where there aren't any issues to speak of.

honeytea fair enough, Totnes is pretty laid back

noveg that sounds horrendous. You poor thing :( Did the owners who abandoned their properties find it impossible to sell them? Presumably your estate has now got a reputation as a shitty place to live. How awful.

Oh no, StateOfConfusion, that would be my worst nightmare. No wonder you want to leave. Hope it doesn't take too long.

Angelico the house we're renting is ex council and it's really nice, decent size and the neighbours are lovely. I guess the trouble with a completely new town is that it's so hard to judge whether or not there will be problems when there's no previous info or reputation to go on

Good idea of yours about asking social workers, it's not something I'd have thought of but makes a lot of sense :) And can see why getting the right street would be even more crucial in somewhere like Belfast. Scary to think you could end up with paramilitaries for neighbours if you were unlucky!

I just wouldn't take the risk as they can and do make your life hell.
That's just it, PPIMT it does feel like it's a risk to take. And then if you've bought the place, it's so much harder to move on quickly.

They will only let well behaved existing tenants move into new properties like this ime.

Really? I hadn't heard that Margery In that case, I may ring the housing associations concerned and ask if they've got this policy in place. Thanks :)

Yes, they weren't allowed to sell it, not sure why though.
They ended up renting somewhere and cutting their losses.

It does have a bad reputation here.
There a quite a few council estates nearby, but this is the troublesome place.

A lot of the problems happened when people got their secure tenancy, and then did house exchanges.
A really nice family 'house swapped' to get off the estate, and the people that moved in were a bit dodge.
Police knocked their door in a few weeks ago.

Skeg it's probably because they could only sell it as shared ownership to someone else who'd be up for buying the same sized share - this must limit the amount of potential buyers you'd have anyway, without the additional problems of trying to sell a property on what's become a sink estate. Your description of what's happened where you live has put me right off tbh, it's exactly what DH and I were worried about :(

Got to go and make tea now so if anyone else replies, I won't be able to acknowledge your post for a while. Will be very grateful though and am to everyone who's given their opinions. Thanks all

I agree that it justs takes one bad family to ruin an area. I live in a very mixed area of owner occupied, private rented and HA. One street nearby in particular has been a very desirable place to live for years with house prices above the norm. A few years ago an HA family moved in and not long after trouble started with graffiti, pissing in doorways, breaking into sheds and cellars (for a drinking den), hanging around in gangs, shouting foul language etc., washing pulled off line and other shitty stuff.

Have noticed quite a few for sale signs going up around about this house and you couldn't pay me to live there now. I am now suspicious if I see a cluster of for sale signs and wonder if its a neighbour problem. This was an established street which was popular for years and I wonder how long it will take for its reputation to go down and for people to realise that its not what it used to be.

I do think you can get bad neighbours everywhere though - unfortunately.

Adverse - why would you not buy on a very expensive small private estate?