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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Buy flat close to asylum seeker hotels?

37 replies

Kat256M · 23/10/2023 21:58

Hello everyone!

Long story short I just read a post in our local newspaper about city centre hotels being converted to asylum seeker accomondation. We are in the process of buying a flat near the city centre with all 3 of the hotels within close walking distance. A lot more hotels in close proximity that could potentially do it too.

I knew that the area had its risks and the main street has gone downhill over the years but this is about house prices too, not only security. Do you think they will be affected long term? Are people going to avoid buying there because of this even if crime rate does not increase? I am not from the UK so I am not familiar with market preferences etc. so much

OP posts:
Enderunicorn · 24/10/2023 12:30

It's not that the hotels are full of asylum seekers it's that the ones near me are full of groups of bored men who aren't allowed to work, they do hang around outside a lot of the day and there have been a couple of stabbings at one near me. They're in a crap situation and I guess things boil over every so often. If I had a choice I wouldn't choose to live close to that hotel although I wouldn't choose to live close to any hotel to be honest.

PinkRoses1245 · 24/10/2023 12:34

Lavender14 · 23/10/2023 22:04

You do realise that the vast, vast majority of asylum seeking people are decent hard working people don't you? They're not here to be antisocial and the overwhelming majority just want to get on with their lives. I personally wouldn't be put off by that in the same way I would be cautious about a men's hostel for ex offenders. Plus most cities have a lot of homeless accommodation spread across the area so there's likely more in the area than you realise that just doesn't get the level of media attention that anything set up for asylum seekers does.

This. Sorry but your post is coming across very prejudiced to asylum seekers. Any city will have its share of crime.

SandGroperNomad · 24/10/2023 12:52

I was in a hostel in a very affluent area for some years - the hostel wasn’t the issue!

YABU because you are creating stigma to a hugely marginalised portion of society.

Megifer · 24/10/2023 13:05

Op it might be better to ask people IRL tbh.

hattie43 · 24/10/2023 13:06

Yep it'll be hard to sell .

MintJulia · 24/10/2023 13:10

Yes, it would put me off.

Large numbers of bored, single young men who are not allowed to work can be problematic. If I was young and buying my first flat, it wouldn't worry me much, but I wouldn't choose to raise my child there.

IsThereABarUpThere · 24/10/2023 13:29

As someone who moved away from living very close to a hotel with the asylum seekers in, I wouldn't do it again.

ntmdino · 24/10/2023 13:46

Depends how paranoid you are about foreigners, really.

If it were me, I'd probably use the opportunity to renegotiate the price. The asylum seekers being housed there is overwhelmingly likely to be a temporary situation (since it's horrifyingly expensive for the government), and when that's done the prices should bounce back and you can make a tidy bit of equity.

Original poster
Kat256M · 24/10/2023 14:08

@ntmdino I might try to do that...I don't have an issue with it but I am worried about negative equity. I just don't know how the selker will react (I don't want to mess the sale up!). They wouldn't really know or care about the area since it has always been an invesment property for them.

I think it will always be easy to let because it is a student city with horribly expensive rents. I think whoever would buy from us would most likely be to rent...I just don't know.

OP posts:
mummabubs · 24/10/2023 16:12

Sad to hear other people are having issues. We have a hotel that's being used for asylum seekers in the village I live it. When it was announced we had all sorts of propaganda posted around the village and through our doors, how crime rates would rocket, it wouldn't be safe for women to walk alone once it opened (🙄). Honestly...
It's been open for 18 months now there has been no change in crime rates here, it doesn't feel any different. So purely from my experience I wouldn't be put off, the asylum seekers are people too right? But if you're worried maybe scope the area out on different days /times. (This is what we did for every house we offered on anyway!)

MadeOfAllWork · 24/10/2023 18:22

We have asylum seekers housed in a hotel near us. We’ve been told it will revert back to a hotel next year. It’s quite possibly the same where you are looking to buy. It could all have gone back to normal usage by the time you want to sell.

BrideToBe2313123 · 24/10/2023 21:39

Kat256M · 23/10/2023 22:45

@BrideToBe2313123 We are FTB with a small baby. Ironically, we think of flats as safer than houses because back home everyone lives in flats. In houses the fact that windows are street level, easily accessible back doors, being upstairs and hearing noises downstairs at night etc. freak me out! I know people really dislike living in flats here but it is the norm for me.

It is a city, I probably phrased it wrong! The area we are buying is not bad, it is just very close to (not in) the centre where you have the usual drug addicts, homeless, drunks...but we wanted to live centrally as we don't drive, can both walk to work and be near the train station and other amenities. We have mostly companies and high-rises around us.

UK city centres don't have the 'usual' drug addicts, homeless, drunk people it really depends on the area.
I don't really understand how this place can be full of offices + high rises, yet have a declining main street. Usually with such a large population the area would be busy and full of shops, especially for the office crowd (post Covid caveat!).
These other things you mention, to me would be more off-putting than the asylum seeker hotels (which, if you Google, the government look to be exiting anyway).

You must be either in London, Manchester or Glasgow - not sure what other city has such a large number of high rise buildings.

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