Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask would you buy a fab house in a crap area?

166 replies

BebeRainbow · 22/09/2018 23:08

Or would you rather buy an average house in a naice area ? Just looking for the General consensus really

Looking at moving house, as ours is too small and I don’t like the area, it really is a shit hole. if we move to a better area we won’t get much at all for our money

But in areas that are ... less nice (but probably slightly better than where we are) you can get something pretty special fairly affordably.

We are in the midlands

OP posts:
IGiorni · 23/09/2018 09:56

We had a lovely house in a crap area. Found needles etc on the street and our NDN was violent and had his children removed by social services. We moved after 3 months. Fast forward a few years and said area is now a designated ‘safe zone’ for prostitutes. Not really somewhere I would want to raise a family. We now live in a nice area but in a house that needs a lot doing to it. I’m much happier though. I work in a ‘crap’ area and to be honest you couldn’t pay me to live there. Call me a snob but there are so many issues day in day out and it’s just not a safe place.

Aridane · 23/09/2018 10:00

I am glad I didn’t go for location, location, location.

I am still in my 3 bedroomed freehold house with garden in SE London bought as a first time buy when my contemporaries were buying small one bedroom leasehold flats in west London ( and buy west London, we’re not talking Chelsea or nice Islington). The thrill of having a whole house for a first time buy!

Still there - not because I can’t sell but because I don’t need / want to move. The area has also become a bit more respectable / sought over ( no longer get comments of ‘where’s that?’ Or ‘why do you live there?’

Area has become more desirable over the years. Will never have the cachet

VerbenaGirl · 23/09/2018 10:00

The area is really important. However, it is worth looking at whether the crap area is starting to become better - because of people moving there to get better houses / more for their money?

Angelil · 23/09/2018 10:01

I might, as the area might gentrify and you could end up making a good profit on the house.

You can get awful neighbours anywhere.

If "crap" means "unsafe" then I might think differently but I don't think that's what you're talking about here (if I've understood correctly).

Heavystream · 23/09/2018 10:02

It depends on the area really. But I wouldn’t have a problem as long as it wasn’t unsafe and there were decent schools, hospitals etc nearby

Kemer2018 · 23/09/2018 10:11

Average house in nice area. You can change the house but not the area.

hammeringinmyhead · 23/09/2018 10:13

As others have said, it depends on "crap". I live in a town in Wiltshire that people from Bath and Frome roll their eyes at and call rough because there are a few hoodies and a local homeless shouty guy, but they've never lived anywhere apart from leafy Somerset/BANES. I lived in an area in the North East for uni which would blow their minds. We bought here 10 years ago and the prices have rocketed since people realised it was actually a nice place to have a family.

GreatWesternValkyrie · 23/09/2018 10:27

I did this about 20 years ago, we were living in a naice area and wanted a bigger house but the houses in the less desirable town were a good 30% less expensive. We decided on the bigger house in the not so naice area, it’s not a really bad town but has always lacked good shops/restaurants and isn’t in any way pretty. I wasn’t happy for the first week we’d moved but after that, I didn’t regret it, it’s perfect for the commuting we need to do and my home is totally my haven.

Twenty years on, I still dislike the town although it has improved and we never shop or eat out here but my road is fairly quiet, my neighbours are pleasant and pretty considerate and we could afford big improvements to the house over the years as we’d not overstretched ourselves. When the time comes to retire and we have no need to commute, twe should sell easily as our road is popular and then we’ll move to a smaller property in a nicer location.

I should probably add that we bought in the 90s, so we’d seen friends and relatives struggle with 15% interest rates earlier that decade, some losing their homes or having negative equity and struggling badly. That was a big factor in our decision as well but overall, it was a good decision.

SunnyCoco · 23/09/2018 10:29

Worst house in best area

Juells · 23/09/2018 10:33

I live in a town in Wiltshire that people from Bath and Frome roll their eyes at and call rough because there are a few hoodies and a local homeless shouty guy,

Ha ha I bet I know where that is, I lived in one of the surrounding villages for three years. Does it begin with a T? Grin

RangeRider · 23/09/2018 10:35

You can improve a house. You can’t improve an area.
This ^^.

Oysterbabe · 23/09/2018 10:36

I live in a town in Wiltshire that people from Bath and Frome roll their eyes at and call rough because there are a few hoodies and a local homeless shouty guy

Trowbridge?

Oysterbabe · 23/09/2018 10:38

I agree that neighbours are so important and you can end up with terrible ones anywhere. We're really lucky that ours are a lovely family with same age children.

EK36 · 23/09/2018 10:38

No. We bought a big house in a rough area. Hated living there and walking through the streets. Most of the people and kids were not nice. We moved to a smaller house in a nice area. We love living here and walking the streets.

NeverTwerkNaked · 23/09/2018 10:40

It depends... look for signs the area is “on the up”.... if it’s an area ripe for gentrification you could be on to a winner.

Justabouthadituptohere · 23/09/2018 10:44

Area - never house. It’s always about location. People drastically down size for our area. Transport links and schools.

MatildaTheCat · 23/09/2018 10:46

If you know the area well then it’s best to not even view properties in an area you dislike. They are cheaper for a reason. I would ditto this about any other feature which is important to you- I wouldn’t view a property with a north or east facing garden. If I liked the house I would be in a dilemma but I know I wouldn’t be happy with the garden.

LOliver123 · 23/09/2018 10:47

Area - every time

Greysgirl · 23/09/2018 11:11

Please don’t buy a house in a crap area. It’ll be a decision you regret. I bought a lovely house in a nice area but over 12 years it’s gone downhill and I can’t wait to move. It’s made me realise that the area is massively important, daily we experience:

People sitting outside on the street smoking all sorts
A drug dealer lives a few doors away (been raided several times but they just start up again)
Shouting and screaming by neighbourhood kids and adults on the street, not the odd raised voice, I mean for hours at a time
Cars being vandalised
People blocking our drive with their cars or kids leaving our drive covered with their bikes and scooters
Kids scraping our gravel off the drive to throw at passing cars whilst being encouraged by their parents
People don’t use their bins, they just throw rubbish over the walls into some unoccupied land as we now have a rat problem.

In the 12 years since we bought the house all this had happened, it used to be a lovely area and I’d never have believed it could go so bad. Our house is a beautiful Victorian building with original features and I know people will be attracted to it because of how it looks, I feel bad that the people we sell to will be moving to such a shit hole.

Mummytowooter · 23/09/2018 12:22

We lived in an amazing house in a shit area for years (midlands too). It was just too much in the end so we moved to Shropshire. We brought new build so was able to keep finances reasonable and still get a nice house. Our DD is in a lovely school with only 15 in her class (would have been over 30 had we stayed where we were) in an amazing school in a lovely little village

FermatsTheorem · 23/09/2018 12:27

I've done both.

Nice house in shit area. I was young and naive and thought I was able to cope because I didn't have Hyacynth Bucket prejudices about shitty areas. 5 burglaries in a decade later... Lost a great deal of money on the sale, really struggled to move anywhere nicer just because of difficulty selling.

Tiny flat in nice area (best I could afford given shit fest of previous house). Did it up nicely. Made 20K profit in about 5 years when I came to move, to another (smaller than I'd ideally like) house in a nice area.

Speaking from bitter experience it's a no-brainer. Take the decent area every time.

You do not want to live with harassment in the street, burglaries, car crime, airgun pellets and bricks through the window, a brothel round the corner.

AliceRR · 23/09/2018 12:32

No. We are looking at moving at the moment and we sort of went off focus for a bit and got quite interested in a house that is nice and has everything we want and is actually on a really nice cul de sac but not really where we want to be in terms of the town and where it is in relation to our work. I decided we’d compromised too much and we didn’t want to live there.

We later saw a house in our perfect area. We get less house for our money (it is 3 bed whereas the other was 4 bed, it has one bathroom whereas the other had two bathrooms and a downstairs toilet) but it’s acrually a much nicer house in a better area and we could extend if we wanted more space.

Also we both said we’d see this as a forever house whereas we saw the other one we would have been living in for a few years but would ultimately want to move...

WheelyCote · 23/09/2018 12:36

I did this.
But as a step to getting back on housing ladder.
It's an affluent area but the house is on an estate nestled behind the nice but.

It's not somewhere I'll stay....whilst my two DTeens are at the nearby school...we're here to stay. Then outta here.

WheelyCote · 23/09/2018 12:40

Neighbours are inconsiderate and the street is rough.

But it's a means to an end. I'll make a profit when I sell

And then area over house any day of the week

Bluelady · 23/09/2018 12:45

How many people who bought in places like Hackney 20 years ago when it was the arse end of London are kicking themselves now? None. The housing shortage means gentrification. It's worth bearing in mind.