New build social housing

[mrsclaus1984]

Our house is currently on the market, and DH wants to arrange to view a house for sale on a new build estate. It’s around a year old, not totally brand new.

The house itself really is beautiful, but I’m reluctant because the adjacent road is full of social housing.

I have said to DH that I feel we should at least have a drive around the estate at a couple of different times of the day/evening to get a feel for the place generally, as well as the social housing roads, before arranging to view and potentially falling in love with the house without seeing the bigger picture.

I’m sure that there are many people in social housing who are great neighbours, but let’s face it these properties do come with problems at times and I would absolutely hate to live close to any issues.

has anyone else bought a home on a new estate and not had any problems with the social housing?

I live in new build estate with a percentage of social housing. I can't tell you which houses are which.

I live on an old estate now In a council house and it's lovey and quiet. In the summer there are a couple of inconsiderate people but I imagine you would get that anywhere.
I downsized from a big house on a new estate. The neighbours I had made me suicidal. They were the neighbours from hell. I would definitely have a drive around and maybe ask about as to what the community is like. It was my forever home and I couldn't wait to leave. I am just glad I had an asset the council wanted.

Yes, I read your op. I read the part that says you are reluctant to buy a house near a road with social housing. Yes, you said that you were sure that there are many people in social housing who make great neighbours, but you then added the bit about how those properties come with problems at times and that you would absolutely hate to live close to any issues. You made assumptions about social housing tenants that you didn't make about privately owned properties, even if the people living there are also tenants.

The council estate I live on is perfectly civilised, though I would guesstimate that substantially more than half of the homes have exercised the right to buy.

My impression, partly from all the tradesmens vans that are parked up in the evenings and leave early in the mornings, is that people here are some of the hardworking 'backbone of Britain' trying to earn an honest days' living.

The most antisocial behaviour I've witnessed is those charmers who don't pick up after their dogs.

Having said that, I have heard some shocking stories of antisocial and criminal behaviour through working with social tenants at various local councils. The misery suffered by neighbours is persistent and awful.

It is so difficult to qualify for social housing these days that often it is the most underprivileged and vulnerable people living with complex challenges who are granted tenancies. Support for their needs and for their wider local communities has been decimated by cuts to local government funding.

I can’t see the connection between social housing and owning a trampoline. It that some sort of class marker? 😁

I grew up on a massive council estate on the South coast of England,loads of high rise tower blocks and other flats.you had older people, families young single mums all living side by side getting on it was lovely people getting together the summer barbeques growing up everyone was polite and said good morning to each other.

It was said to be one of the most deprived areas of the country but I met some great people who I'm even with contact with today.

I live in a beautiful waterside development now it's very quiet and lovely but I will never forget my roots.

I was puzzled by this too.

I think @anonqrtb was making the subtle suggestion @mrsclaus1984 should undertake drone surveillance of back gardens as well as measuring the grass on others' front lawns?

Who knows, though, as someone who was dragged-up in council housing I'm far too stupid to understand the reasoning of my betters. 😉

So you're a massive snob then. Do all the social housing tenants a favour and go and buy a house near Hyacinth Bucket.

Speaking from personal experience, I would avoid any homes close to social housing. That’s not be being snobby, that’s me not wanting my children to grow up next to drug dealers and houses that have police outside of them all the time, ever again. I moved house because it was that bad. The best case scenario is you’re going to be living next to people who are messy and blare loud music.

Opposite for me and all my friends/family that visited, they could tell straight away where the social housing was despite them looking like all the others. I guess it’s a game of luck or where in the country you are.

Our next door neighbours are social housing tenants. They do awful things like take in parcels for us, offer to help us sort out our front hedge with their trimmer and chopped down a tree close to our boundary that we were worried would damage our house with absolutely no arguments. Monsters!

On the other side we have renters. Don’t get me started on how they nicely allowed our builders to drive a micro digger through their yard without being awkward when we were struggling for access, or how they kindly lent DH a jack to change a car wheel last week!

Incidentally, the absolute worst neighbour we’ve had here by far is a guy who backs onto ours and has owned his house since the 80’s.

You just can’t predict how the neighbours will be!

@Bargello
Second this.
I'll get flamed for it but we lived next to social housing. No probs for about 4 years until the housing association changed and different tenants moved in. One had a petrol bomb put through their letter box, very obvious drug dealing happening, one dragged her little kid out barely dressed in all hours while her ex partner screamed obscenities at them. Rubbish dumped outside houses, sat outside drinking til all hours.
We sold up and moved to a neighborhood with mostly elderly people. Christ knows how we sold the house. Never again.
My mum grew up in a very deprived social housing area and I fully accept that private tenants/owners can be a bag of shit sometimes and the majority of social housing tenants are lovely, but fuck would I buy near it again after our personal experience.

Many of the comments on here are ridiculous because people are talking in extremes.

The reality is that experience shows the average social housing tenant is a less desirable neighbour than the average private owner. That of course does not mean that all social housing tenants are less desirable than all private owners.

It is no coincidence that developers invariably put social housing at the edges of any development site and the last plots to sell are nearly always the privately owned houses that are adjacent to the social housing.

Having said that I live next door to a privately owned property and the family that live there are massive twats!

I grew up in a small village with lots of social housing. Everybody was normal except for a single house that the council used as a dumping ground for problem families. They'd usually stay for 5-10 years and then be replaced with another feckless bunch.

The local council were challenged about the way the house was being allocated and they said 'all communities have to take their share'.

Agree with this.

@mrsclaus1984 , as this is Mumsnet you will be vilified for daring to suggest you might be a bit concerned about living near social housing! I personally would not live near social housing. I lived in SH growing up, and would not want my children to have a similar experience. I'm sure the people calling you a snob have very little experience of the issues there can be.

sorry, but you have the stereotypical view of ‘social housing’. We’re not all ‘chavs’ who don’t work and smoke weed all day and let our children run riot. I live in a lovely newbuild area or ‘estate’ where the houses are worth almost 1 mil+. There are a couple of council homes, and there are two small blocks of flats with about 8 homes in each. The flats are council. Us people in the flats are just normal people and you would never guess that they’re council - or whatever you view as the stereotype.

you could move next door to someone who rents/owns their property and them be a nuisance - these people exist everywhere and not just in social housing.

Friends of ours re sold their house after 6 months as they didn't realise it was adjacent to social housing and they had a lot of antisocial behaviour.

I do think its quite unbelievable that you can pay £250k/ £ 300k and your next door neighbours were given the sane house for free but then don't look after it.

@glossypeach
The houses are worth a million plus in the estate but they'd never guess the council ones were the blocks of flats?
I think people could prob work that out

I think the boundaries are blurred these days. There are lots of home owners on what used to be social housing estates. There are people in new build houses on private estates who would never have been able to afford them without government support such as help to buy, affordable housing, part ownership etc. The ‘status’ of being a homeowner on a private estate is something that really belongs in the 1980’s.

House for free 🙄

Try this, OP - I don't think anyone's linked it yet, and it's a handy thing to use no matter who owns the houses: https://www.adt.co.uk/crime-in-my-area

I live in a “nice” estate of new builds, no social housing near by and lots of nice cars on the drive.

And every other month there is a break in! Knife wielding, don’t care about alarm systems in fact they don’t even care if the house is empty.

Buy the house next to the social housing….I would take that over the fear we experience.

It can’t hurt to have a look about, like you would with any street you were considering moving too.

I'd say the majority of social housing tenants aren't chavs, but the majority of chavs are social housing tenants.