to buy a new house next to social housing?

[plentyofsoap]

I had a casual conversation about a house we are looking to buy with a group of friends today. One who is a friend of a friend said it sounded lovely, but we would be mad to buy near those in social housing?! I once had a neighbour who caused me huge problems and she owned her house therefore it makes no difference to me. This was ignored by her. Am I missing something or is she just being a snob?

I grew up in a council house, and a council flat was my first home for three or four years until I could buy.

There is absolutely no way I'd ever buy in a council or SH area if I could at all avoid it. It's true that the vast majority are normal families, but unfortunately there will always be one or two families in these areas who ruin it for everyone, and woe betide anyone who is brave enough to complain. It's easy to say 'complain to the council' but who is going to be the one to sit scared to leave the house for fear of verbal abuse, or worried to find the damage on the car every morning - will it need slashed tyres replacing, or just a window?

Also, it's easy to spot which houses in a development are SH. It shouldn't be, they should look exactly the same, but many will look uncared for. Gardens won't be tended to, there will be rubbish and furniture left outside, and meter boxes are often left open of hanging off their hinges.

It's not very MN acceptable to bash SH, but I wouldn't choose it over my private estate.

Oh and it doesn't help that scumbag neighbour has dumped his old cooker right outside my lounge window. Why does everyone else have to pay for the council to pick these things up/ or take them to the dump and the anti social ones don't? The council still eventually take them away... I think those of us who pay are being taken for mugs!

It's not snobby at all. Go and walk around some of the London estates on a night and see how long it s before you are crapping yourself. Why would anyone buy in to that if they have the choice? You would never beable to sell it for one. I have very close experience of this recently. It's a con building these lovely appartments so near to estates.

Everyone practically has advised the OP to go and see the area first hand as everywhere is different. That's not been snobby.

I was brought up on a council estate so was my mother. Half my family still live on it. Up North. Completely different to an inner city estate.

It's just the whole " You never know who might move next door to you if they're in social housing." crap.

As you said you had a horrible neighbour who owned their house. They are much harder to deal with.

Just ignore her.

I would be wary. A friend did similar and now has scrambler bikes whizzing around her estate late into the night.

Depends. I lived on an HA estate for a while and had no problems. My neighbours were lovely and the estate was generally well-kept. No real problems with crime or anti-social behaviour.

Less than 7 miles away, another estate was always full of litter and regularly had the police turning up.

In my current role I have noticed a disturbing trend for new builds to go to the dogs within a couple of years because of the anti-social behaviour of some of the HA tenants. This isn't tarring people on benefits, because by the same token I have seen older estates become better than ever.

I think the poster who made the comment about the age of estates has made a good point. Older, established estates are proper communities and it is well documented that social cohesion has a huge effect on the crime and anti-social behaviour.

New builds don't have that, and a combination of things like not enough social housing, stricter criteria to get it, time-specific tenancies and the bedroom tax mean many tenants will be transient and therefore never invest in their property or community.

Maybe it is an age of the scheme type thing. I have elderly neighbours who have lived in their council owned house next door since it was brand new. They've never bought it from the council, happy to rent. That's not unusual up here and it's by far an inner city sink estate.

PS We own our home and a garden that resembles a scrap yard - being approved a mortgage doesn't automatically give you a sense of decency!

I think my neighbour wishes we were social tenants - she'd have someone to complain to then.

Whether or not she is right, and whether or not she is a snob, it will affect the resale value as she won't be the only person who won't be interested in buying the house for this reason.

Have a look at how the neighbours' houses are kept and try to meet them. Most places are close to social housing in the city where I live, but there are only a few streets that are rough/where you shouldn't leave your car/ walk alone after dark/ get burgled once a month.
Look at the crime figures for the street.

I love all these sweeping generalisations about all SH tenants.

FWIW, I'm the only SH tenant in a row of 4, my house and gardens are the best kept by far (with the exception of 1 neighbour who is on a par)

My NDN's front and back gardens are an eyesore, as are the windows - broken vertical blinds and never been cleaned (young, healthy, working family so I know they are capable of keeping things tidy if not pristine).

The only time I've sat outside my house on a sunny day (with a cup of tea) has been to keep an eye on my DD who was playing out with the other children, who's parents were also sat outside chatting.

So, no there aren't 3 yo's from SH running around til all hours. In fact, the youngsters who were running around unsupervised (as I mentioned on another thread earlier today) were private tenants.

You can't tar everyone with the same brush - you'll get as many scum bags in SH as you will in private rented/owned, they just tend to be further spread out in private houses.

When we went house hunting Dh turned one house down because the houses over the road had bars at the windows.

Or Juliet balconies, as the rest of us know them

I'm quite appalled the snobbery on this thread. And that's what it is, snobbery. Yes some council estates are rough, but trust me I live on a street of private houses and you are just as likely to get dodgy neighbours there as well. We had drug dealers living opposite us at one point and, they owned the home themselves. In the early hours of the morning you'd often see mini buses full of people turning up on a "drug run" to get some "gear. Then early one morning there was a raid, the occupants were arrested and last we heard sent down for a long time.

At the end of the street lives a druggy, heroin addict I believe, who lives there with her kids and an endless stream of rough, dodgy unsavoury looking men. Once one leaves another arrives. Her garden is an over grown mess full of rubbish and I've seen rats running about. The police are always there, usually kicking the doors down, as are social services to check on the children. She often has loud music blaring out till all hours as well. The house is owned and paid for by her ex-husband who is the children's dad.

So there you have it. You can have bad neighbours anyway, and to those sneering and saying that they'd never by an ex council property. They are solidly built with big rooms and often very large gardens. You get a lot more for your money than you do when buying the boxes that pass for modern houses!

There is an upmarket new-ish development not that far from me, all 'private' housing, was thought to be quite a prestigious address. When it was built, admittedly at the height of the property boom, the houses cost around £200 to 250k. It has had no end of trouble. Several of the houses were bought by drug dealers and other criminal types. Many others were bought by investors as buy to let properties, and there is a high turnover of tenants. There have been gunshots fired through windows when presumably someone has fallen out with someone else. Several of the houses have been for sale for ages now, and won't sell, although that is partly because of the housing crash. But anyway, its rougher than most of the 'rough' estates in town. So based on that, I wouldn't hesitate to buy a house near social housing, because you can get crap neighbours no matter how expensive your house or how 'desirable' your address.

It is down to the specific area. There is a notorious council estate nearby. There are others around the area that are well regarded. This is the one that everyone avoids. A large number of houses were built that border on this estate. They used the name of a nicer area a mile away to sell them! The problems are caused by the proximity to the estate, not by the social housing and part ownership properties that were built as part of the new housing.

There was low uptake on the part owned and social housing and, after the first phase of building was completed, on the privately owned properties too. Kids from the estate broke into completed but empty properties and had parties, there was a lot of graffiti and the worse it got the harder it was to get people to move in. They dropped the prices and now you've got mainly landlords and that first wave of people who bought off plan and have seen the value of their homes drop 15%+ and are stuck there. Many of the houses have car ports not garages and there's a lot of theft from cars and keying. To get to the anywhere on foot you have to go through the estate. After the first few times they've been harassed and groped by teenage lads most women give up. That's in daylight. No-one would try it after dark.

In contrast to that, there's a large council estate closer to the centre that has an outstanding primary, about 20% of homes now privately owned and prices that are the closest to those that have never been council owned of anywhere I've seen. In my area you'd be better off living on that council estate than in the new build private estate.

Drug addicts and troublemakers can't generally afford to rent alongside professionals in the southeast. Perhaps this accounts for the discrepancy.
It's not really for you to say that modern buildings are better. They depress the house values. People want period buildings.

Don't be daft Celti Pixe, those sneering are in ivory clad town houses or Georgian piles!

the new build development scheme a 2 mintue walk from my place is soulless, the houses are poky with small bedrooms with no storage and stamp sized gardens. The people there go to the same parks, schools, shops, get on the same buses, go to the same fetes and community events as us. The only difference is they've got no room for a trampoline and are paying £500 a month more than me for the privilage.

The new build I bought 10 years ago, the ha houses were lovely, nice young families. The flats different story, drug dealing and police all the time. So based on that I'd have no problems moving next to the houses but would think hard about flats

'Trouble makers' don't always have to be able to afford to rent in these areas to live there though do they?

They could be inherited homes.

I've seen that happen a few times. My aunt is in a world heritage site, the most expensive area of Edinburgh. Her neighbours were seriously from hell. 12 of them in a 3 bed house - not tiny kids either 8 - 28 really then mum and dad. Main doors broken, stair windows smashed, police raids on a fortnightly basis - truly awful.

She still managed to sell for £1.2m.

I used to own a house on a council estate, we moved just to get away from it, downsizing considerably to be able to afford to move away.

Where we are now it is all privately owned, with just a few renters, and whilst there is always the odd horrible neighbour they are few and far between.

When we bought on the council estate it looked mostly well maintained, but within 2 years most of the houses near us had new tenants in and we had some horrible neighbours move in. Just 2 or 3 horrible, trouble families in our small street changed the whole feel of the place and attracted bad sorts from all over the estate to our street. What started off as a nice street quickly changed.

On the council estate for every hard working, decent, lovely family (of which there were many!) there was more awful families. It was a sink estate, up north with little to no employment. We celebrated when we moved away.

people who.live in SH are just the same as anyone else.

They are not a different species.

Paradise chick that's true but they are in the minority so they account for fewer people's bad experiences.

So you really believe the ability to get approved for a mortgage determines people's behaviour? Because that's what it boils down to!

They aren't a different species, they are the same as everyone else of course.

That said, some (like the rest of the general population) are total shits and living in an area populated by them can be very unpleasant, for the other SH tenants and any private renters/owners alike. Like in every aspect of life, one or two bad ones who are in the minority spoil it for everyone else.

Our neighbours on one side were SH tenants and had been all their lives, they were a wonderful family and we are still in touch with them since moving. They struggled and suffered with the scum families that moved to our street the same as we did. Sadly for them they couldn't just choose to move away like we did and had to keep requesting to be moved, which still hasn't happened.

No, I think a persons behavior would inform to a large extent whether they can get a mortgage. Important distinction.

Not only a mortgage, but private rental in certain areas. This is not to say nice people get mortgages and bad people don't (in case that's your next comment) but being a professional is fairly incompatible with a host of antisocial behavior, on both the causal and effect sides.