Lovely house -crap area ( and possibly crapper)

[TheRemotePart]

I just need to confirm that this is a daft purchase

We don’t have a huge mortgage available to us and a small deposit, but we’re hoping to get on the property ladder for our forever home( or at least 10 years!)

We can afford a small flat in the nicer part of the city, but want a home with a garden/ space for our family - so we’ve been looking at areas close to us, but a bit “rougher” than we’re used to.

We found a lovely big home ,in its own new estate( a few streets really) , a little away from the direct rough part and DH in particular ,loves it. No work needed. Perfect.

BUT

Theres 2 large blocks of flats going up, practically on top of the street and it’s social housing

Now, the hippy leftist knows how important social housing is BUT in my city, a lot of these estates and blocks are like the Wild West

Should we risk it ? See if any half decent people move in?
Or no chance: if it becomes rough you’ll sell at a loss

Anyone done similar?

I wouldn’t. Go for the better area every time. Is there really no middle ground? Get a long term mortgage?

I say this as someone who also grew up on a council estate, all the gardens were well cared for, you had to have great references and be in employment to get a house. Over the years (my mum stayed out until she died) it really changed and although the majority of the residents are fine there are plenty who are nothing but trouble as the original screening processes are no longer in place.

No I wouldn't. I've always avoided those areas at all cost. I know a couple who did similar to what you are considering and every single weekend that they have lived there, there has been an issue of some sort, mostly involving the police.

I wouldn’t touch it, to be honest.

@CalmConfident no I don’t think a pool but possibly a gym.

The housing association that is "responsible" for part of our estate, frankly, doesn't.
It's me forever reporting fly-tipping and they take ages to deal with it. In an ideal world I'd get together with the handful of nice neighbours and sort it but as it's the drug dealers and their mates causing the problems I don't fancy a brick through my window. So I carry on under the radar.

I didn’t have a choice post divorce when I bought my house in a lesser area, I needed a house in the catchment area for my children, and big enough for us not to be on top of each other, plus I have cats. There are council houses further up the road and a council block being built along part of my road. I could have afforded a small flat in a nice area but it just wasn’t practical for my family (and cats).

Upsides have been: big house, close to central amenities. Neighbours in my courtyard are decent. Kids can get to school easily. I have a garden.

Downsides: the area isn’t well kept, roads are bumpy etc. people leave rubbish & crap in the street/pavements.
There’s nothing visually pretty about the area, not many trees etc. it’s never likely to be gentrified.
It’ll take a long while to sell & hasn’t increased much in value.
The council block will increase traffic.

As soon as the kids leave home I will sell & get a flat in a better area. It’s been a great home for 2 teenagers due to the space but its a bit of a depressing place to live and the council spend zilch keeping it maintained.

If you don’t mind not having a garden or pets and can cope in a flat I’d go for the better area.

When I met my husband, he lived in a new estate (not SH) in the middle of a council area that was considered quite rough.

Any problems on our estate came from those living in the new estate, not the “rough” bit. The value of his home more than doubled in 5 years, as did the value of the ex-council flats in the rough bit.

I don’t believe your city has some kind of unique problem with social housing tenants.

[quote TheRemotePart]@ZenNudist you can’t call someone hopelessly ignorant for not wanting to the risk of 200 potential junkies living on top of them ? Good grief!

Thanks for the input [/quote]
200 potential junkies ? Really you sound silly now.

We went for the best house on a cheaper new build estate and have ended up with some incredibly rough neighbors. We have a little clique who are in their 50s and spend their evenings and weekends drinking in the street whilst their children scream over the neighbour's TVs. It's like living on a stereotypical council estate without the cheaper mortgage.

Ah I've just seen the message where you called people in social housing 200 potential junkies. I'm assuming this is a wind up thread. Go and find something better to do.

Don't do it OP. I live on an estate of just 40 houses and luckily we are in a cup de sac of just 5.

Where are the issues on this estate? That's right - the social housing. Filling their gardens with shit, one rides a quad bike on the road - or he did, until the police stopped him.

They put social housing in nice areas to try and stop them becoming no go areas. It's not a lot of fun for people who aren't social housing.

And that's the truth in most cases.

Get the worst house in the best area, not the best house in the worst area. You can always do up the house later, but you can never do up the area later.

Its really unusual to be building social or council housing now, its usually all affordable housing, which is either 80% market rent or part buy part rent through a housing association. Yes you could get junkies or problem tenants, you could get an adult with learning difficulties or an 18 year old given a tenancy as they have been sharing a bedroom with their terminally ill sibling, or a woman and child escaping domestic violence. Or you could just get a young family who have been made homeless and done their (long) time in one room in a B&B as emergency accommodation. It wouldn't put me off but I would thoroughly investigate the tenure and the reputation of the housing association.

@littleowls83 true enough for all, but is is all deffo social and there’s going to be 2 blocks at 8 stories (ish) so yes whilst there could be plenty of reasonable people, there could be plenty that aren’t.

We’re not putting in an “interest”. We’ve discussed it and even though we love it, itll probably still go £20k over the HR and we don’t want to pay that for where it is.
The search continues….

Wouldn’t buy. Whilst most tenants in social housing are lovely, when you get a bad one - they’re really bad! Nasty neighbours are one thing, but in our experience the social housing version of this goes way way further. We had a house on a new estate, next to the group of social housing. Friends with most families, but the 2 nightmares were the cause of our having to move, and having to declare the neighbour issues as the police had to be involved (and the police involvement didn’t stop them!)