To buy a house next to housing association properties?

[Brightskiesahead]

I need some advice/opinions please.

Soon to be divorced and left with some equity to buy a small house for me and 2 primary age DC.

One has come up on a new build development which is great on paper. Detached, 3 bed, garage, 2 parking spaces and west facing garden. It's in budget. I can't stretch to the next house type up. But the house types I'm looking at are next to housing association properties. The immediate neighbour is a disabled property then its 5 terraced houses of HA.

Would you buy it?

I can't investigate the area as it's not complete yet. The general neighbour hood is lovely (I live close by currently).

Thank god I live in the middle of a HA estate.

You sound incredibly judgemental, snobbish, and everything you say you’re not. Alongside the old saying people in glass houses! This thread is making me see red!

What an appaling attitude!!

I rented a flat in a really lovely area. In the time I was there one neighbour was done for child abuse offences, anotyer had a cannabis factory & a third had frequent domestics.

Conversely I now live in a 4 in a block where the other 3 houses are 'shock horror' council tenants. They are fantastic neighbours. Their gardens are stunning and they look out for each other

Cant believe you're asking such a down right snobby question

DM has lived in HA for nearly 3 decades. She’s lived in 3 different ones. The first one was mix of HA & privately owned. The owners were awful and snobbish about there being HA properties ‘but we bought our houses’ and her first HA neighbour was lovely. Unfortunately after she left the new HA tenants were awful, constantly on the scrounge for stuff off her & feral children who broke several peoples windows.

The next area seemed nice at first but was all HA. Bonfires on the grass areas, graffiti written on her car, antisocial noise etc.

Now in a small street of 12 houses mixed HA & owners and has been there 5 years. The only antisocial person there is an owner (retired) who plays music loudly in her garden all summer and parks blocking the road so residents can’t get out of the street.

We are two streets down from a little cul de sac where there are housing association homes. One of my DD most trusted friends lives there, from a humble but truly lovely family.

We didn’t know or care where she lives and would never dream of judging any person on where they live or who their landlord is.

Do you not think that people who can afford to buy their own home could potentially also not look after it properly or is it solely the domain of HA tenants? Scruffy gardens,
Loud music, arguments, noisy kids - no people with mortgages do none of this??

I live in a new build estate and I'm a HA tenant and live in a mid-terrace property with HA either side of me. There are 3 other properties in my street. My neighbours were awful, mother left her teenage daughters to fend for themselves and they spent all night having parties and smoking weed but the HA were very helpful and strict with anti-social behaviour and they were evicted. I now have lovey neighbours and the other HA are brilliant and very neighbourly. I think it is luck of the draw but if there are any complaints I would raise concerns with the HA/LA/EH

It wouldn't put me off now I know HAs do follow up with complaints.

Is housing association the same as council housing? Our house is on an estate with about 60% council tenants, 40% privately owned. Our immediate neighbours and those across the street are all council tenants and are wonderful. The council tenants down the other end of the street are mostly weed-smoking layabouts. The other private owners don't seem to talk to anyone so who knows what they're like 🤷🏼‍♀️
Presumably HA tenants come in all sorts, just like council tenants (and anyone else!)

Sorry saw you live near, it's a new start and investment.

I wouldn’t. Unfortunately a HA estate was built across from us. Our lovely village now has dog poo everywhere, gangs of kids of all ages hanging around, scruffy gardens and unfortunately our house is now also devalued by where it’s located. You have to think about potential ability to sell too.

I wouldn’t have bought if it was here when we viewed the house.

Ive got a neighbour who plays their music, when he comes home for lunch. Bloody pain when you are trying to sleep after a night shift.

You can get arseholes anywhere you live, unless you move to the country.

You posted about this yesterday didn't you?

@FitzsimmonsMarvel - dog poo belongs just to the HA tenants does it? Do mortgaged owners dogs not poo?

Dumb luck either way as with any new build neighborhood.

Could be full of loud young 20 somethings having many parties in their newly bought home, private landlords letting out to young professionals or older people hating the natural noise of young children playing.

Or it could be a load of children from your DC's school or a similar age who they will play with happily.

We had slightly more noise from the council owned property next to us than the private rented on the other side but council one was about to bought under right to buy.

Council maintenance might well be better than privately owned (or especially rented) properties. All the council properties in our new area are conspicuous with their freshly renewed roof tiles, bright clean render and brand new fences!

@Corrag

You posted about this yesterday didn't you?

Yes in the property section. Just wanted a few more replies!

I don’t think I’d do anything differently regardless of where we were buying. I’d make several visits to the locality to get a feel for it, to look at issues like traffic jams, anti-social behaviour, noise, etc.

It’s a bit hard at the moment to get a good idea but a walk around looking at the way houses were kept would either reassure or cause concerns.
Our last nanny has a lovely family home which was half buy half rent via a housing association. Lots of rental housing association properties nearby. A bit of social housing. It was living near a shared home for three young adults with learning disabilities that made her decide to move from early years into social care. She loves her house, has good neighbours. It’s a nice community with few problems.

It’s a family home you’re after. It’s perfectly reasonable to want to understand the area you intend to buy in.

To be honest I live in HA House new build estate row of 6 in an expensive area and I would be hacked off if I had paid market prices and ended up with neighbours like mine.
No pride taken 4 bed beautiful house looks like steptoe yard in just 2 years. HA do nothing even with his nasty rusty caravan parked up restricting car park spaces.
On the plus side rest of the neighbours fine 🙂

I'm not sure about now but it used to be that HA tenants were fairly long term so hopefully would be as committed as you. I lived in HA for ten years and it was really good. Quiet and considerate neighbours. I've also lived in a supposedly nicer area of town where the houses are expensive and it was hell. Constant noise and anti social behaviour.

This sounds ok to me. You've got one building between you which could reduce noise.

I think here is not a great place to ask because you’ll get posters falling over themselves to be so right on and tell you that it’ll be no problem at all. Meanwhile half wouldn’t consider it themselves.

In an ideal world it should be no problem and a good thing to mix the social/private housing. We don’t live in an ideal world, the problems can be endless and you could end up miserable and losing money. If at all possible I would reconsider.

You might catch the poor OP!

Op asked a question because of some biased opinions around her. She's concerned, isn't that ok? Why must some on here be such nasty vitriolic people.

When I divorced I moved to a smaller house with my two youngest ds, onto an estate of mixed ha and privately owned properties. My house is sandwiched between two ha properties. My neighbours left and right are the salt of the earth, in fact, I don't know how I would have survived the lockdowns without their help and support. We all help each other...it really doesn't matter to us who owns and who rents.

All new build developments have to have a percentage of social housing in so you won't find one without.
You might need to get your head out of your arsehole and get into the real world.
Whether or not you have awful neighbours won't depend on their residential status.
I am in a HA property on a new development and have lovely neighbours on a mix of HA, part buy and privately owned street.
Good luck in your future as a single mother.. oh I'm also one of those and that isn't as bad as you clearly think it is either.

I'd be careful.

When I moved into my mixed new housing estate there was quite a bit of antisocial behaviour.

One of the neighbours was bending my ear over it one day. Complaining about the strip of 5 terraced houses next to hers and about how HA tenants didn't mix well in the type of street and area we have.

She didn't hang around long when I pointed out that my side including me who she'd said were lovely were the HA tenants and the other 5 were the privately owned properties

Seriously get a grip. There always a risk your neighbours could be that's but it won't be because they lay a landlord or mortgage company. It'll be because they are testy people.