To be concerned about living near social housing?

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Hi,

So before anyone starts with the popcorn emojis or snobbery accusations, I'm well aware I'm going to offend some people by asking this question and whereas I'm not happy about that, I could really do with some advice and experiences, so I've decided to ask a controversial question.

I should also make it clear that I'm fully aware that the majority of people living in SH are not anti social arseholes - I have friends in SH. I have also had issues with neighbours who own their house or rent privately. I know SH doesn't automatically equate to issues.

However, statistically speaking, there are more issues with anti social behaviour in SH areas, disproportionately so, so am I really being unreasonable for being concerned about moving to a road which has SH?

Thanks.

My mum had a council house next door. Tenant was an elderly lady and no trouble at all. Next tenant was an alcoholic who always had a houseful of other alcoholics, stumbling across the lawn at 1am and making noise and banging on her door. We got him evicted eventually. Next tenant was also an alcoholic but he’s a pleasant middle aged man who just gets quietly pissed and goes to bed, no noise or trouble. So you don’t know!

But the truth is that there’s a chance of the anti social variety being in council houses, and they may not be there when you buy your house but they could move in later. So I would avoid for that reason.

Almost half of the voters here are saying you ANBU - based on that sample the house, when you came to sell, would put off 50% of potential buyers. (Yes I'm aware its a small sample....)
I wouldn't buy a house near it and have always, when buying a new build (which obviously makes identifying sh easier) I have always looked at where any sh (or other schemes etc) are on comparison to house I am interested in

I would dodge a predominantly SH estate but now most SH is a minority allocation on otherwise private developments and the problems tend to not happen on those. My parents live on a very expensive road and have bloody horrendous neighbours so I'm glad you recognise you get them anywhere.

I would want to know what sort of social housing it was.
My experience in an expensive part of the world,is that social housing to long term renters is fine. if it is part buy, part rent invariably they sell up when families get older and it goes to landlords. You then get a revolving door of tenants over the years. Obviously they have less investment in the area or property.

I live on a road where on side is all social housing flats. No problems whatsoever, really lovely here.

Before this I lived in an ex council house on an estate in Manchester and it was absolutely horrendous, constant anti social behaviour, stabbings, police raids, drug dealing etc.

Totally depends on the area.

We have social housing near me, apartments, no issues at all. Bigger issue is anti social parking by homeowners. Covenants mean you can't bring commercial vehicles onto the development unless for work purposes, yet a neighbour parks an enormous van on double yellows most nights (everyone knows the council never send traffic warden's here) and someone parks the front part of a hgv here 3-4 nights a week

Vanessa George owned her own house
Peter Sutcliffe owned his own house
Harold Shipman owned his own house.............................................

There's nothing anyone here can possibly say.

It depends on the actual, specific area.

It depends. There is social housing I would not want to be near where I live, and some that are absolutely fine.
In my parent's street where they have lived for over fifty years, many newer homeowners are surprised to find that about a fifth of houses are still social housing. They are all long-term tenants and no different to the home owners

@YoucancallmeKAREN spot on

I live in a pretty decent area and there's a new build estate close by with a section of social housing. I wouldn't have thought for a second that it would automatically equate to trouble but from people who bought there it regular kicks off and the estate was closed recently due to a knife incident. Lots of very unhappy people who bought expensive properties now😬

I moved to a SO property on a new estate 12 months ago. No issues at all. I love it here

There is no social housing where I live but there are now a lot of private rentals.
Worst neighbours we ever had were home owners.

Have you asked the people in social housing whether they'd be ok having you as a neighbour?

I wouldn't do it. Unlike others on here, I've never had any issues with neighbours who own their property!

I think you probably need to visit the area a few times. Try and find somewhere to sit down for a while if you can and maybe take a drive there in the evening too.

The end of our road was 100% social housing- built in the 1940s as part of the massive restructuring.

I know one along here which is still social housing - the rest have all been bought, extended, done up, whatever and they're now going for half a million plus.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of this, it proves that you can't always tell who owns and who doesn't. They look pretty similar at first glance.

I would live somewhere that had a handful of SH properties nearby. But not a majority. It’s a numbers game and the more SH you have, the higher the likelihood that you will have issues from one or two bad apples.

yes it’s possible that you will have issues with people who are private renting or owning their own properties but my guesses are the chances would be lower. It’s also certainly the case that it devalues the property (which can be a good thing because it means it will be better value for you to buy, but may put buyers off in the future and there will always be a price cap no matter how much you extend/do it up etc)

@Kerfuffler 👏👏 I'm sure you're very proud of yourself for that comment.

Some really interesting points made. Seems to have completely divided the crowd.

How do you check the crime rates again? I used a website when we came here, but it only seems to give you the past months crime stats now.

I live in an area surrounded by SH but also multimillion£ properties next to one another. Literally huge blocks of SH and enclaves where flats are £10m. It depends on the area, not the fact that there is SH.

It depends entirely on the estate it’s self I work for one of the utilities and spend a lot of time on them
there some I wouldn’t even drive through and we used to get sent in 3’s for safety

others lovely houses big gardens proper old school community

I don’t think you can use a blanket judgement

I've lived on all types of different council estates through various social landlords. Some I would be happy to buy a house on and some I wouldn't. In fact, I bought my first house on a small council estate with around a 70/30 split council/owned privately. My parents bought a rental property on a large rough council estate but at the edge of it. Again it was fine, the only minor issues we ever had (I lived there for a while) was kids sometimes picking gravel up off the drive and throwing them around.

I live in a "council house" now through the local social housing. I would definitely buy a house down here although there is 1 square of houses that I wouldn't live in this village and that's because of the state of the properties down there and the vast amount of kids playing out and chucking rubbish around.

I think it all depends on the general area and the actual street as well. It's impossible to say really

I lived in SH for about 10 years, it wasn't pleasent. On that basis I wouldn't consider it. However, as many PP have pointed out, it really depends on the area, demographic etc. And yy, homeowners can be total arses too. The odds are generally greater with SH (in my experience).

I bought an ex-council flat in a nice part of London and I mildly regret it tbh.

The block is 50% private, 50% council (as in half the flats are privately owned), and there is a STARK difference between the two sets of neighbours.

This is just my experience, of course, but among the council tenants I’ve come across: weed smoking in communal areas, emotional abuse of children (shouted and sworn at daily), a confrontational neighbour looking to pick a fight for no reason, drill music with offensive lyrics played out LOUD during the day while I’m trying to WFH.

And this is in a desirable part of South London!

Overall, I like the area and my lovely flat enough to stay, but if I could go back I would definitely not buy an ex-council flat in a block with more than, say, 10% council tenants.

You need to speak to others living on the street to find out if there are any anti-social issues nearby. It’s so case by case dependant.
My story - we bought a small terraced house in London, opposite a block of SH flats. Had to sell and move in the end as the problems were just non stop - physical fighting in the street (kids and adults), loud parties going all through the night, had teenagers passed out over-dosed outside our house, one day someone tried to murder someone by repeatedly ramming them with their car……… I couldn’t count the amount of times I had to call 999 or go out to administer first aid to people. Swore I would never live next to SH again.
Maybe I was just unlucky and it was a particularly bad street!