New build next to housing association

[Happydove]

This will sound awful but I need opinions. Pearl clutching Boden wearing mumsnetters are who I want blunt opinions from here!

So new build development nice 4 bed house with big garden BUT it’s next to the housing association houses. As in they back onto the garden all along one side and end.
For this reason the house is affordable for us plus the garden is biggest on development.
This is a expensive town and certainly not a cheep house.
Be honest would you consider it? We are talking at least 5 LA gardens along one side of the garden.
I know it sounds horrible and snobbish but I’m worried about antisocial behavior would we have resentment/ a social divide that could cause a problem etc.
We are both professionals I’m public facing ( locally) DH is a high earner but not local. We have children also.

I grew up on a rough council estate and luckily have managed to buy my own home and live very differently to my how my parents did/do. There's no way I'd buy this property.

I also bought an ex council house without realising it, the majority of the houses are privately owned I believe. Luckily to the front I overlook fields, which I enjoy when I ignore the rush hour traffic.
What would concern me if I was you is backing on to 5 gardens. If those homes have children you could be in for a great deal of disturbing noise if you like to sit out and enjoy relative peace in yours. Either side of me the neighbours have grandchildren visit everyday, they have trampolines and one side has there's erected right next to my patio and I can see it above my fence. Let me tell you they scream and shout endlessly and can easily be heard from inside my house. To be honest whether HA or not people can be thoughtless and entitled, but I suggest going for any house which backs on to less gardens.

As a former housing association tenant I would say it's risky. 9 out of 10 of the tenants I lived alongside were lovely but one guy was awful. - parties, litter, spitting daily out the window etc he had addiction problems which I sympathised with but he was also very abusive and we spent the 5 years we lived there complaining and feeling intimidated. Obviously this doesn't mean you're guaranteed antisocial behaviour with social housing but it's just more likely in my opinion. It was mostly single mums, like myself, where I lived and we all just looked after our kids and wanted a nice living environment so you could be lucky to have neighbours like us but there's also the risk of getting the drug addict/alcoholic that we had housed and then you're miserable. You could also move somewhere with no social housing and still end up with nightmare neighbours but in my opinion, it's a lower risk

I wouldn't buy if it concerned me enough to create a post on here.

@Fridasrage what is the problem with what she has asked? I was a council/housing association tenant for years and her concerns are completely valid

Don’t listen to anyone who calls you a snob or similar but who hasn’t been in a similar situation
It happened to us in our first home together and was bloody awful. We managed to part ex with a large builder for just about what we paid for it.
I’m not going to list all the incidents but the police were there regularly and a couple of the houses were used as a dumping ground by the Council for people who had been evicted due to anti social behaviour etc. Some people were ok but it only took 3 or 4 families to make it Hell.
This was in quite a rural area as well.
It IS a gamble

Personally wouldn't buy it - you'll never relax if you have those doubts. Had some bad experiences with anti social neighbours and LA housing but am just lucky where I live now. Also had crap private neighbours too! If I could afford it I'd have no neighbours but that's just me living in a fantasy world

Regardless of it being a housing association or not - a house with 5 gardens backing on to just one side of your garden is a potential issue. You only need one person with kids on a trampoline, football mad kid with bad aim and a strong kick, teenager with a drum kit in the shed, or a houdini dog and you've lost all privacy. Unless there's a fooking massive hedge I'd avoid.

What is the allocation policy for the HA houses? Some specify a minimum income so will all be working households if that makes you feel better.

I live in a council house, on a street which is mixed. The only neighbours who piss me off are privately owned, nothing major just noisy kids. One garden is a mess, but never any real trouble.

@Science9 So in the original post, OP said

"I know it sounds horrible and snobbish but I’m worried about antisocial behavior would we have resentment/ a social divide that could cause a problem etc.
We are both professionals I’m public facing ( locally) DH is a high earner but not local. We have children also."

She specifically asked for opinions from the type of people likely to have a middle class outlook. She wasn't as interested in what people who have or do live in housing association properties have to say - only people who make external judgements about those people.

Yes, later after she'd received negative feedback she quickly changed her mind and said that actually they aren't snobby but they were actually concerned about the resale value. I mean things might have been slightly different if that was the story from the start, but of course it wasn't - as it clearly states in the first post, she's worried that people who live in the housing association properties would be anti-social, and that there would be a social divide between her professional, high wage family (including children ofc) and the new neighbours.

The OP didn't say that this is a house near an estate known for anti-social behaviour or being 'rough' - it's a new housing development. This is is based purely on them being housing association tenants.

All in all, it's classist and it sucks.

I was the “snobby cow” (see my earlier post) despite helping neighbours and being nice and friendly because I had a nice car (which regularly got scratched), a “posh” accent and didn’t like kids climbing over my fence to use my garden as a short cut
Don’t worry about being judged OP, worry about living so,where you hate and not being able to move because your house is worth less than you paid
As I said, don’t listen to anyone who hasn’t lived it

I think it’s reasonable to think about resale issues and possible problems. We were house hunting recently and we always looked at neighborhood. Who doesn’t?
I would say it’s very suspicious that the developers mentioned this to you. I would expect them to say that it’s fabulous house in fabulous location reasonably priced.

Just read your update and if it’s the first thing the builder is saying about the house it shows buyers of that type of property in your area don’t want to be near social housing and you might want to sell in 5 years then don’t buy it. Ex council semis or other types of property of old council estates are often easy to sell as people know what they’re looking at and buy to let landlords like them.

I think posting this was a mistake! The house has not sold. It’s being offered at a discount. The first thing the sales office told you was the position of it. You must know it doesn’t make financial sense! You won’t shift it and other houses will always be more desirable than this one. So don’t buy it! Surely high flying DH can afford £30k more for a better one? Most new houses are expensive anyway. Why not look for a slightly older one or a bigger 3 bed where you can split a room?

Personally, any house that is that over looked would be a no from me!!

As for your question, I live in a shared ownership property which in the site plan is shown as affordable housing. The SO are mixed with the private whereas the Housing Association are separated to one side of the development and admittedly, that side has had some anti social behaviour problems.

I have no issue with HA, before buying our house we lived in a HA flat. However, it only takes one anti social family to cause trouble, but the same goes for private - there is nothing to say you won't get trouble from someone living in a privately owned house.

A few doors down from us in a privately owned house is a very antisocial family so it can happen anywhere.

However, if you are that concerned - don't buy it. For us, our house is worth £30k more than we paid for it and we have only lived there four years. If any come up for sale they sell within days so the fact that they are near HA clearly has no affect on resale

I wouldn;t as it is too overlooked by too many gardens and HA houses will likly all have at least 2 children in the household which is a lot of children in colse proximity.

Not a HA snob, I bought ex-LA and most of my (lovely, quiet) neighbors are still LA however most have been here for many donkeys years and not a huge amount of young children or teenagers about.

I know its been said before - but my view concurs - its not the fact that its HA - its that you will have so many neighbours - whether they are HA tenants, private tenants or owner occupiers - there's just a higher probability that one of them will be a nightmare.
Also you need to treat this as an asset - if its putting you or other people off then the same will apply if you ever need to sell on...
I would avoid and not purchase

Find another house to buy.

We bought our flat where 3/5 are HA. I loved the flat and was determined not to be prejudiced.

I was correct re 1 of the flats, the couple are perfect neighbours. The other 2 are not.

We have had years of drug misuse on the doorstep, police raids on one of the flats, our garden vandalised and property stolen, verbal abuse, graffiti and rubbish, Rottweiler left loose to roam the communal corridor, to name but a few issues we’ve had over the years.

It only takes one bad neighbour to make your life hell. I wouldn’t be so naive again.

Funniest thing is the worst neighbour I've ever encountered was when I was a homeowner and so were the anti social ones. Constant parties and lots of domestic violence.

Not that domestic violence is funny. What's funny is the classist assumptions.

I was having a conversation about this with some friends on Wednesday. One is working for an estate agency and she said the detached houses on a nearby new estate aren't selling because they are next to the HA ones that had to be built.
I would have reservations but realise they might be totally unfounded.
It's a gamble.

No I wouldn't buy it. When we rented out our house the bank made it clear we'd be in violation of terms if we rented to HA tenants. The reason is the HA tenants are more likely not to pay rent and trash the house. They make risk decisions and said no. There's nothing classist about it.

There's a council housing estate at the top of our street. It's three blocks of low rise flats so must house some 50+ families. I've never had any problems at all. In fact I have come to know one family who live there and we go round occasionally, it's a nice community.
Our home owning, City worker next door neighbours are far worse! With their tiny little dogs who bark all day long and loud friends. I hate them.

How would you have rented your house out to HA tenants summer - you're not a HA? What you could have done which many private landlords have done is entered into a Private Sector Leasing scheme with the HA (not the tenant) whereby the HA pays you a rent and set void costs and the HA takes on the management of the tenancy.