Anyone ever bought ex-council/high-rise flat in London?

[doings]

I need to get a flat in London as commuting is killing me. I can only consider cheap end of the market as it needs to be as central as possible otherwise it defeats the object.

It looks like that leaves me with ex-council or high-rise flats. I'm going purpose built as my experience of conversions isn't good with noise transfer.

Does anyone live in one on here and what's it like? No kids with me now, so don't have to consider schools etc. Any advice welcome, thanks.

Where are you Aaamanda if you don't mind my asking, as I am looking to buy in London at the moment and the ex council do seem to offer very good value. Are your neighbours private owners or council tenants?

Much easier to travel from than some of the areas you mention and really good value (for London) is this block. Not a council block either so less clobbering from service charges. Tube station less than 5 mins away. Check out journey times.

www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/44876488?search_identifier=d0266dac8d5307ff037b5f212208ebbd

I loved my 11th floor flat in a concrete block on a South London estate. Once I was through my flat door it was great with no noise from neighbours and a lovely view over London.

However in the seven years I was there I did gradually get more and more irritated by dirty lifts (think deliberate daubing of saliva on the lift buttons) and the number of times someone got in the lift with a status breed dog which slobbered on my work trousers would need more than my two hands to count! This sort of thing meant I was happy to leave by the time I did.

Just don't have Hackney Council as your leaseholder. We had to pay £10k for our share of a new roof, which was clearly put on as an excuse to get leaseholders to cough up a giant share of the scaffolding and admin costs for the council owned flats getting new windows, fascia, and a general makeover. Which I slightly resented, since the old roof was only ten years old. And the service charge was £200 a month for fuck all. But the flat was ace, tons of room, generally nice neighbours, in Zone 1 just, and we had a little garden. I do sometimes wonder why we moved.

Deptford is a bit rough but it's having money pumped into it - the whole borough of Lewisham is by all accounts (we were told by Lewisham building control). Travel links are excellent from New Cross which is just up the road.