Great house right near horrible estate

[Legalwomble]

I wouldn’t normally ask strangers, but this is going to be a house bought with divorce money, can only afford to move once, so unless I downsize at some point, this is it! There’s a lot riding on me making the right decision.

Great house, good price, but it’s 200 m or so from a notoriously lousy housing estate. It’s Council (which isn’t the problem) but it’s one of the really old, unloved Council estates where there is just no money spent on it, the whole thing is really dingy and horrible tbh.
The Estate Agent has said the houses affordability is because it’s by the Estate, which I do agree with.

Im in two minds, I really like it, and it isn’t like I can see it out of my window, but it is literally at the end of the road and if that troubles me then I guess it will trouble anyone else if I ever try to sell it. They have already apparently rejected two offers around what I would have offered, so I would have to offer more than I had planned to, but it’s so nice!! It ticks nearly all my boxes.

So I’m a bit torn.

I live in a nice house the right size for us on the horrible estate.

Thoughts:

We are very very lucky with our neighbours, unbelievably so really. I get stressed about the elderly neighbours moving on and being replaced with problem families though.

I love my house and garden and that we all have our own rooms.

We spend a lot of time traipsing to local tram/ bus stops to collect the kids or getting them taxis.

Our children all go to school out of the area. I worry about them not having friends back very often due to the area (they all go to schools where kids come from far and wide so it's infrequent but I suppose I don't suggest/encourage it in case the other parents don't want them to come here).

I'm not embarrassed but I don't relish saying where I live if that makes sense.

You are all right. I’m sad because it’s so nice and we are so desperate to buy a house and get out of this renting hell and nothing is coming on the market!!

It’s sold 3 times and fallen through. I put off seeing it simply because of where it is, I wouldn’t send the kids (younger) to the shop at the end of the road for example because you do get a lot of kids congregating from the Estate.

I hate being like that because I lived in a Council house on a big Estate as a kid, but this isn’t like that was, it’s not lovely, big houses, it’s overcrowded and it’s grim to drive through in places.

Back to the drawing board I guess…..

Do an online street check. It will tell you the crime rate on the street where your house is, and other anti social stuff. I searched it to check for every potential house I looked at as it lists literally everything about the area.

I wouldn't . Lived on such an estate once and it was hell.

This is what it says about Crime. That’s a reasonable amount in August I think isn’t it?

Eurgh, if I put in the street name that is at the end of my road it goes up to 19 incidents, Public order offences, Anti social behaviour, Violent crime, burglary, car crime etc.

Its too much of a risk, that close to the house I’m living in

Thing is, OP, it only takes one set of neighbours from hell to make it hell. Whilst you can say that this risk exists everywhere, if you're in the area where such problems are known or are likely because lots of people are moving after relatively short periods of time, your risk increases significantly and that's not what you want on your own and after divorce, just not worth the stress.

No way house I’m going for wouldn't buy in a million years if it wasn't for the location.

9 !incidents of violent crime
You snd your DC are not going to feel safe living there OP

That does sound pretty bad!

Haven’t read everything but we moved from beautiful house in area that as going downhill to dilapidated square block on edge of beautiful village with no regrets

still here 10 yrs and kids love it…as do we

Definitely avoid. Location is non negotiable in my opinion! I’d rather compromise on anything else

That’s a lot of violent crime. Just checked my area, one crime, lighting a bonfire…
imagine if the house was just ok, would you be looking in that area?

I lived on s large notorious estate for a short time, my mental health went down the pan.

That is reported crime. The true figures may well be a lot higher.

The garages alone would be a deal-breaker.

As pp have said, look for something smaller in a nicer area.

Don’t do it. Don’t.

I grew up with a small estate of council houses (3 short streets) behind our new build but they'd mostly been bought by their owners. Absolutely fine. However my student house adjoined a massive one and it felt so unsafe. I wouldn't with children.

Always think about resale OP.

I wouldn’t. You’ll have difficulty selling if you can’t live with it. You’d be trapped. Trapped somewhere not great which sounds bloody miserable.

Yes I think you are all right. I let the house blind me to the fact that normally I wouldn’t have entertained the place it was in.

It’s gutting, because it’s the first house that’s been affordable with decent sized bedrooms. I was kind of airbrushing over the fact I don’t like the adjoining location.

I can’t really afford to take on a doer upper and after 10 years of marriage to a man who systematically wrecked our house “doing it up” and is living in crap all that time I don’t think I could have doing it again either!

Then go smaller in a better location for the time being, declutter, put some things into storage, pay off as much mortgage as you possibly can and in 5 years time either sell up or remortgage and extend depending on what would work out better financially. I'd also consider a house with a big garage or a large garden to put sheds in for storage/office/play room or whatever you might need. It's frustrating - I've downsized from an ok location to a very good one because there was nothing else on the market and if there was, prices were sky high. It's annoying with kids who always need stuff, but the location is so nice and easy and I know it won't be forever either. There is room to extend as well, so I have options in the future.

Location, location, location. Its not just a TV show.

Will you feel safe as a single women living there? Will your children?

You’ll find somewhere that’s right for you @Legalwomble 😊 these things can just take a a very frustratingly long time 😬

We’ve just her through similar - we actually went back to see a “perfect” house in a less than perfect location 3 times and eventually put in an offer. I didn’t sleep at all that night - and not because I was excited/nervous awaiting news of our offer being accepted/rejected, but because I realised that I was anxious at the thought of living in that location 😬 I called the estate agent as soon as they opened and withdrew our offer.

We waited and searched for another few months and a smaller house came up in a location that we never thought in a million years that we’d have been able to afford! They were selling due to family circumstances and needed a very quick sale. We’d moved into rented to let our sale go through so we were in a position to proceed as quickly as they needed.

Everything just fell into place. The house is small but perfectly formed. It’s in a really nice part of town and it’s a brilliant location for our DC to grow up in 😊 Just hold out a bit longer, hopefully the same happens for you!

That’s quite high.

Theres no violent crime where l live or arson.

Just the odd break in.

l wouldn’t want my kids round there. It doesn’t sound safe.

Do not do this.

As people have already said it is better to go for a smaller/not so nice house in a safer area.

You can always improve the house but improving the area is not in your control.

I lived near a very small council estate in London and although it did not have major issues, it still had a couple of families that caused nuisance in term of noise and anti-social behaviour and even gang activities.

I have friends who bought a really nice house in a part of North London but they ignored the fact that there were large council estates nearby. Now they have constant problems with anti-social behaviour and drug addicts loitering near their house.

One of the things I told myself is that I would never buy or rent again near council estates. Because unfortunately although the majority of people will just want to get on with their life, it only takes a few ''problem families'' and dodgy individuals to have a negative impact on the area.