What is wrong with buying an ex council house?

[icepackquestion]

I am looking at houses to buy. When I have mentioned some to a few people they have asked if the are ex council. I don't know the answer so I just move on.

When I viewed a house yesterday the estate agent said "this is ex council but it's one of the few I would happily live in myself"

What is wrong with ex council houses? I literally have no idea, and couldn't tell the difference between them and others.

I grew up on a council estate and like others have said pros are the houses are solid and much bigger usually. There doesn’t tend to be any parking. In council areas there’s lots of lovely people, it’s one of the most sociable streets I’ve ever lived on. My family still live there and if you ever need anything, was moving house etc there’d be a group of people ready to help in seconds. There is however bad eggs- a lot more than other streets I’ve lived on, drug dealers and antisocial behaviour is unfortunately common and theres a quick turnaround in some of the houses which increases the chances of getting a bad neighbour.

My house is ex council. The full street is private now pretty much. It's a great house. We were looking to move around 5 years ago and all the new builds we viewed were smaller and the gardens were tiny. So we stayed put and extended instead. Much better value for money.

People are snobs.

We live in a 1950s council house, we are in a row of 10 on a much longer road. I think only 1 is still council owned (one of our immediate neighbours) Despite the council houses being far bigger than the 1930s semis on the same road, having much larger gardens and off-road parking (they weren't built with off road parking but as most of our front gardens are 12m * 8m they've all had parking added over the years) they're still worth less. It's not area related as it's literally the same road. I think it's probably just snobbery. Good for us though, our house was a bargain.

People can be snobby about

Council houses
New builds
Flats
Rented

I grew up in a council house, on a council estate, parents live in a council house, I now live in a new build house and have a flat. So full quota for me

Surely it depends on the area? I live in an ex-council house in a lovely rural village. The 'estate' is one road. About 70% of the road is now owned. I can't think of any anti-social behaviour from anyone in the 3 years I've lived here. The sense of community is what strikes me the most having lived always in a city before. I'm not sure if that's just the village rather than being a characteristic of my road though.
The only negative I've had is being a teacher and living in catchment, the little darlings have made a few rude comments about me 'living in the roughest road' or 'not a nice road' which stung but really is hilarious! The road is one of the nicest in the village. All lovely looked after gardens and ends with fields and gorgeous views. It's made me realise there is a stigma still.

I won't be moving. I love it here. My garden is amazing and most of those kids who made the snotty comments live in smaller houses but 1.5x the price with tiny gardens and on the main A road through the village. I know who had the better deal!

We live in an ex council house. Part of a dozen houses in a village, mostly owner occupied now. Our house is double the square footage (a small amount of that is an extension) of other 3 beds, we’ve got a large driveway and garden. The most problematic neighbour owns their house….

No direct experience, my friend bought an ex council house and has council tenant neighbours, she says her house has a ceiling price because it's ex council so they need to be careful not to over spend or they won't recoup the investment.

From a build perspective they are way better than most modern builds, with the exception of the amount of insulation in them, they are solid and we’re mostly built in a period when they had a clerk of works overseeing the construction so the build quality is generally high, they are always bigger than a new build and generally have good size mature gardens, I’d take one over a new build any day

I live in an ex-council house. Like most of the ones from between the 1930s-1950s it is solid built with big rooms and decent size garden.

My friends now ex refused point blank to even look at any ex council houses in the tiny village they lived in, even though they were all private. They ended up with a new build shoe box.

Most of the ones on my road are privately owned. Most of the ones everywhere are privately owned now. That's why the housing lists are so long. I'm very grateful I was able to buy. I doubt my kids will be so lucky, and will be grateful for anything they can get, whether it's ex council or not.

There’s nothing wrong about buying ex council as long as right house for you. The thing I would be checking if the property is of standard construction. We have a lot in our area, which went up quickly after Second World War and are non standard. Amazing they are still standing really because they weren’t designed too. You cannot get a mortgage on these houses.

I'm surprised to read this tbh as I recently bought an ex-council house in my local area. Every time I've told any friends/family the street we bought on, the usual response was something like "ooh ex-authority, very nice" followed by comments on how the older council houses are very good houses in terms of quality. Admittedly it was mostly older relatives who would say this as they are the only ones who can remember which streets were originally all council houses and which weren't🤣

I'm currently living in an ex Council house in a very expensive part of Surrey. There's no way we could afford to live here otherwise. But to be honest, I wouldn't have known... it's just a house! The area is known as the less desirable part - because it's cheaper and not in the centre of town - but it's nice, leafy, good schools, playgrounds etc, and the posh town centre is only 5 mins away anyway! Some of our neighbours are a bit 'rough' though, that's the only thing. If you look on social deprivation mapping you can see what the overall area is like.

This has been done to death. It’s seldom about the neighbours as so many council houses have been sold off now, but often to do with the aesthetics, because they aren’t as pretty you often get much more for your money, Ie they are cheaper than houses with more kerb appeal.

Many council houses from that era are identifiable by their external look and the look often isn’t seen as attractive. Becayse they weren’t built to be attractive, they were built to be functional. That’s not all council houses, by far, but there is a stereotypical look.

I love my ex council semi. The garden is huge and the small estate is near the park and the shops. The attached neighbours have varied . The latest ones were tenants, hard working Asians who completely neglected their garden so it is brilliant for wildlife and has no smelly barbecues or screaming kids.

All our street was built by the council in the 1960's. With the exception of one of our NDN's, they are all now privately owned. They're double-fronted, which means we have extra wide gardens, and we've been here very happily for 29 years; and we don't plan to move.

P.S. It's true that the ex-local authority label means the property value does not rise as fast as privately-built houses all else being equal.

Ex council flats can have major issues over service charge demands - there are none of the checks / balances in expenditure that you get with private leases and a share of freehold - it means that private tenants can end up with whopping bills without notice.

My 2 bed house is ex council. The rooms and the garden are much bigger than my sister's new build.

My house is ex council. It's solid and reasonably well sized. Badly designed estate though so I feel quite isolated.
The actual estate is a bit crap in parts though. Mixture of owned and local authority.

People are just being snobby.

No. People are being realistic.

My house is ex council, as are most of the houses in my street. Across the road there are 2 still conciliatory owned, 4 bed properties so they will always house large families. At the moment we have a lovely couple and their 5 kids in one and a couple who are as rough as it gets with 6 kids, another on the way, grass 3ft high, banger motors on the drive and road (they have 5 cars - only on can drive) they smoke weed and the house next to them (private) has the smell wafting through to them. Neither of them works. That have been under social work in the past but the file is apparently closed now, despite them barking at the kids and never actually talking to them and they have a huge speaker in the garden for bang bang bang music for about 5 hours each evening. They light fires at least twice a week and are generally rowdy and disruptive. I don't think all council tenants are bad, but at the same time these are the kind of people who would never be found anywhere else.

They can have a reputation of being in dire areas, possibly awful neighbours, poorly built abs maintained houses.

However, they can be well proportioned, solid builds with large gardens.

What is the one you are looking at like?

It’s not snobbery, it’s about risk. Risk is calculated on probability of things that can go wrong in a neighborhood that r type of house. Structurally these houses are fine but ultimately social housing areas tend to have more crime, anti social behaviour, deprivation etc. Relatively speaking, the location will always be a compromise compared with similar areas with privately built housing.

Not to mention that council houses and bocks of flats are ugly. 1950s Eastern European communist brutalist style ugly.

@roobicoobi

People are just being snobby.

No. People are being realistic.

My house is ex council, as are most of the houses in my street. Across the road there are 2 still conciliatory owned, 4 bed properties so they will always house large families. At the moment we have a lovely couple and their 5 kids in one and a couple who are as rough as it gets with 6 kids, another on the way, grass 3ft high, banger motors on the drive and road (they have 5 cars - only on can drive) they smoke weed and the house next to them (private) has the smell wafting through to them. Neither of them works. That have been under social work in the past but the file is apparently closed now, despite them barking at the kids and never actually talking to them and they have a huge speaker in the garden for bang bang bang music for about 5 hours each evening. They light fires at least twice a week and are generally rowdy and disruptive. I don't think all council tenants are bad, but at the same time these are the kind of people who would never be found anywhere else.

I'd agree with this. We live in an ex-council house on a street which is now about 50-50, and there are a fair few families struggling with difficulties which can spill out and affect the rest of us from time to time. But you'd have to judge any ex-council house on its own merits. They're not all the same, nor are the occupants of neighbouring social housing.

Ex council house means you could possibly have a problem with the neighbours. People don’t tend to look after something that doesn’t belong to them, as they don’t pay for it.