Will students leaving in the area decrease house values?

[Cratos]

Hi everybody,
A little while ago I had a thread called "will you sell your house to students?" many of you said yes. Our property has been in the market for about six months. The reason of our move is to be close to the school our kids are attending and also to be in the catchment for a good secondary school.

We had only one offer and this offer was from two parents who wanted to purchase our house for their children starting university. This was not ideal since we would prefer to sell to a family but it was a good offer.
Also the area doesn't attract families with primary / secondary school age children since schools are not very good. And our house is a little big for an older couple.

We kept the property in the market after the offer since the buyer applied to council to get an HMO license. They will add one more room by building a wall between dining and living area and therefore they also require planning permission and they applied for that as well which we didn't know at the time.

At the end potentially the house may have six students living in it. Currently, five of us living in the house. It is a semi detached house and it is about fifteen minutes walk from the university. There are a few students living in the higher end of the street.

We were waiting for the contracts to be exchanged before we talk to our neighbours and we were not sure about their reactions but we thought that students came from good families and they would be living in the house With the others and therefore they would protect their investment and They would respect neighbours.

At the end parents decided to buy the house before the hmo license arrived since university is about to open and also they are probably confident that they will get their license.

As soon as we exchanged contracts, we talked to our neighbours. But they knew the situation already since they were informed by the residential committee a few days ago and there was a notice on the lamppost which we didn't notice and they have not said anything to us until we talk to them.
They were devastated since they are worried about the noise and they don't think students will look after the property and therefore they may not be able to sell their houses now and their house values will decrease etc. One neighbour was so upset that she didn't even want to talk to us. Needless to say, we feel bad.
Has anybody out there had a similar experience? Please share. Thank you

They can't really blame you, for all you know a couple are buying the house, they didn't have to tell you what they were going to do. Even without putting the wall up they can have a student in each bedroom, and wait for permission to add further downstairs bedrooms.
I'd ignore the neighbors, you get what you deem a good price for the property and move.
When we sold our first house we though a lovely young couple were buying it. Found out they bought it for the land and knocked our home down and built one twice as big. Annoyed the neighbors there too, but not our fault.
It's not like you can dictate, young families only, no students.

Sorry about my spelling mistake I meant students living in the area not leaving.

In the situation you describe with schools etc, the neighbours may not like you doing it but will find all their objections suddenly go when they are trying to sell.

Thank you formsharingmyour thoughts. It would be nice to keep our good relationships before we leave the area but it seems impossible now.

Yes, if the shoe was on the other foot then I'm sure your neighbours would do the same.

The neighbours won't like it, I wouldn't like it. But I'd understand why a neighbour has done it and I'd do it myself.

Will it devalue the house? One student house or a few in the area won't. If the whole area becomes student central then possibly. Though you could argue the houses would then be popular with landlords and attract good prices still. The poor schools, etc are the main problem as this has caused the lack of interest from families. That's out of your control.

According to new HMO legislation we learnt that now there cannot be another student HMO within the 40 metre distance of our house. So this means our next door neighbours cannot sell for the same purpose. I guess since they are so against it that they think they wouldn't do it anyway.

Do it. You don't actually have a responsibility to keep the neighbourhood naice after you leave.

Oh and they are students not criminals...

I have had loads of student tenants over the years and they're much less stressful for locals than you'd imagine.

For a start, they're not living in the house for up to four months of the year. Makes for very quiet neighbours!

Secondly, university fees are very high now and students work bloody hard to get their money's worth. The days of puking in the hedge after a 3am bender are long gone.

Finally, if your buyer intends to install their son, he'll have handpicked the tenants from amongst his own mates and will know the consequences of trashing the house. Moreover, your buyers' new tenants are unlikely to turn the place into the party house - I expect the parents will forbid it.

Thank you for all the comments. We hoped so too. Since they are not just landlord renting to others they are living in the house.
VRetired Neighbours commenting that they were planning to sell their house in the near future and now they can't because nobody will want to buy a house next to students. Quite a big baggage of guilt to carry )-: we have been feeling like criminals.

Politely ignore.

I expect your neighbours will discover that what they actually fear is change and not students in due course!

Yes I will try they have been living in the area for a long time. One quoted 40 years so market is different now.