Scared - new house, new build, new area

[newbian]

We are a professional couple living in a central London one bed flat. We?re getting married and thinking about TTC in about a year. Rent keeps going up at our current place, we need more space, and continuing to rent seems like a huge waste of money.

We?re not DIY people at all. So the idea of buying an older home that takes lots of time and money to keep up in the ?right neighbourhood? doesn?t really matter to us. We also decided to go for properties at the lower end of our budget so that we can put money towards a business or investments in buy-to-let, and so if one of us loses our job we won?t be stressed about keeping up with mortgage payments.

We?ve reserved a 3 bed townhouse in a new build development in south London. We know people who have bought in the development and are happy. Owners moving in are pretty much like us, professionals earning well buying starter homes.

But?I am freaking out about actually buying this place and moving. Reasons

• It?s a regeneration project. The area used to have a huge council estate with a bad reputation. If the reputation lingers it will affect our ability to resell in future

• There?s affordable housing. This in itself isn?t a problem, except that some of the residents from the old estate have been rehoused in the development. I?m told the trouble tenants were booted off when the old estate was demolished and sent elsewhere but there?s no way to confirm that. The affordable housing is spread around so you can?t really buy a property that isn?t near some affordable units.

• There are run down areas nearby the development. However it is next to one of the nicest villages in London which is walking distance

I?ve looked at crime stats and the area is actually safer than where we live now. But I can?t stop worrying that we?ll be a target of crime from some of the surrounding areas. I am also afraid that it will somehow become a bit ?chavvy? (sorry!) and I will be stuck living in a community with people I can?t stand. However, if the regeneration is a success it will be a really great suburban area and our property value will rise.

Has anyone bought on a new build development in/around London and what was your experience with any anti-social behaviour or bad neighbours?

I don't think you should buy there, as much as you may not like the " Chavvy" neighbours, they may not like living next to someone who looks down on them.

Firstly there's no guarantee you wouldn't have bad neighbours in the most affluent part of London. In pretty much every London borough you will get million pound houses and the next street up will have social housing. Unless you're planning on moving to Knightsbridge.

I live in an area of London exactly like this. River fronted million pound warehouse flats and a street away from the river is social housing. The flat next door sold in 2 days 5 months ago! There is some crime but you'll be hard pushed to find any where in a city there isn't any.

Owning a home is expensive. You'll pick up DIY as you go. If not pay some one to do it.

A period home isn't necessarily always a money pit.

I would look at it as an opportunity to buy into the area before it gets super expensive. If you'll be TTC and intend to remain in the area long term, looking into schools locally would also be a good bet to make sure you're within catchment of a good one. That would be a major deal breaker for me as schools can be a bit hit an miss in London. Being close to a nice village, big park, transport is always a big plus. If you end up not liking the house you can always sell up and move.

It's a big change but you'll be fine.

I live across the street from a council block now. I know the people, they are good neighbors. I am inclined to think the new area has good neighbors too. But I am unsure because the whole development is new and it could go well or go badly. Especially because 5 years ago this was one of the worst neighborhoods in south London.

Please don't try to make this a class thing. I am not even English. My only concern is safety and the value of my property in an untested area. Rowdy teenagers who do grafitti and beat up children walking home from school - use whatever word you want to describe them if you don't like min - are what concerns me.

@jammybean I think I'm just scared about the change. I have lived in really bad neighborhoods before and never had any problems. It's a big step!

For schools we are lucky enough to earn well so private schools are an option. There are many good choices in the area so we are happy about that. I am a regular churchgoer and there are good state church schools so we are well placed for those too.

Friends of mine never get the whole period property thing that us Brits fall for.

The other option is to buy the worst property you can afford in the best area. Therefore you know what you're buying into. But I guess you'll have to be open to buying an older house.

Not sure of the re-sale value of new builds but from experience period homes sell pretty well.

It's also worth visiting an area at different times of the day too, just so you get a feel for it. But ultimately if you're not sold on the area, I wouldn't go forward with the purchase. I'm sure others posters will have more advice.

I'm itching to know - is this near Dulwich? Or Wimbledon? Can't think of anywhere else that would qualify as a "village".

@Bumblequeen - wow OK that's pretty honest! I didn't think it was that bad but what you've said is my main concern - that the perception will remain bad and therefore will dissuade the types of new residents necessary for the regeneration to be a success. Hmm.

@Bluestocking it's in the newly Royal-ized Borough of Greenwich.

Just don't want someone Googling the area to come straight to this forum so being coy :)

To be honest I wouldn't buy there. They are overpriced compared to houses in more established areas nearby, the estate still hasn't been fully demolished yet and there's no seats on the train by the time it gets to the station. I think it will take quite a long time for the previous reputation to disappear, it was a really horrible place.

One thing that really puts me off is the plans for the rest of the development, they are building a lot of high rise buildings, they'll actually be higher than the flats were on the old estate.

Most new build estates will have a proportion of Affordable Housing as a planning obligation.

2 points:

• firstly, having anxiety about moving to a new place is pretty normal I think (I am in a similar situation to you re buying our first house, and worrying just as intensely about a whole different set of issues).
• secondly, if its the rebuild of a big estate beginning with F, I know it very well. There were a lot of very very nice, very decent people living on that estate which gets forgotten in the bigger narrative. Any estate that undergoes years of underinvestment as that place did will end up being a crime hotspot and a sad horrible place. I think the chances of 'troublemakers' being moved back on is minimal - out of thousands of families moved off only a tiny proportion will get to move back as the proportion of social/'affordable housing' is ridiculously small.

There are loads of other pros and cons to living in that area - I wouldn't want to live there but my criteria are clearly very different from yours.

@Londonderrysue

• the estate has been evicted, there is one bit of the building left but it's coming down in a few months and no one lives there. That doesn't bother me.

• trains: I can barely stuff myself into a DLR train as it is so it can't be much worse

• reputation is something that really bothers me because it is very English. I am from another country and we love what is new and coming up. Here people will cling to how a place was 25 years ago and not let go. Frustrating but the only upside is that London is full of immigrants and newcomers who do not care about reputation but only look at how the place is now.

Is it a dangerous area now? That's what I am worried about. Will I get harassed, risk death? If not then reputation I can put aside.

@Quodlibet thanks for your feedback. What would you say are reasons for not living there? Is it the reputation, or you don't think the regeneration will work? Is there a lot of violent crime? The states I checked on police.uk showed less crime than in my central London neighborhood - which despite being full of rich people had two stabbings, one in daylight, not long ago!

I was in the sales office last week, it is full of well-heeled looking people and they have already sold a few of the houses listed at £1,000,000. In my mind that much money being spent in one concentrated area has to affect the community.

I'm just so torn. I love the property and the other residents in the building are great. Friends who already bought and live there are happy. The park is beautiful. But literally everyone on here who knows the place is telling me not to do it.

Personally I wouldn't want to live in a new build, but you do!

My downsides would be:

• not many cafes/shops/pubs in the immediate area (unless you walk to Naice Village
• it's a bit suburban for me, and there doesn't feel like there's much going on. I prefer to live somewhere a bit edgier.
• having been up close on the process of 'decanting' that estate so that property speculators could have the land, I have political views on what happened there and wouldn't want to buy in to it. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't, you don't have that association, and what's done is done.

But then I grew up round there so wouldn't want to move backwards if you see what I mean.

You are being totally OTT about violent crime and danger. it's a perfectly safe area! I walked through the old estate every day after school for 5 years (before it was emptied) and have no bad memories. It did end up being a crime hotspot when it was empty - but that happens to any empty estate, and is to do with the opportunity afforded by lots of dark empty buildings and streets that are no longer populated.

Haha thanks for giving me a reality check!