Buy an ex-council house?

[estebancolberto]

We are interested in a 3 bed freehold terraced house. It's very spacious, located in a quiet area, 10 mins walk from tube station and doesn't require any work to be done. It has a larger 3rd bed room compared to other 3 bed houses we have seen and also has a utility room. It's also in the price range (420) that we are willing to pay. However, we only recently came to know that the property is ex-council. We are now conflicted about whether to buy or not. We plan to stay there for at least 10 years as it has good nurseries and primary schools nearby. What's the general perception of ex-council houses? Will they be attractive to future buyers? Will they be difficult to sell? I read that they might difficult to mortgage (maybe just flats?) don't tend to go up in value as much as other properties?

Look at the roofs if new they are much more likely to be council.

My road is made up of council houses, many have been bought and sold over the years. No problems at all.

What - for houses built in the 1970's? They won't have been re-roofed. There might be a whole bunch of them with identical double glazing and front doors though.

It'll be broadly the same as now - good value for what you get and appealing to sellers like yourselves. There's really nothing to worry about if it's standard construction and not a flat with cladding issues, or in the depths of the rare council estates that still might have a deservedly bad rep. Most of that's all vestigial from the last century and you can hardly tell now what is/was council housing, as you couldn't with this. It looks lovely so good luck with bagging it!

Also own an ex council. Tbh most of the road is now private

Maybe 4/5 still council. You can tell by their new roofs

They are good strong Holmes. Built to last

Most have big garden

I don't know where some of you are living where the council has re-roofed houses. They certainly haven't done that round here. There is one nearby town where the social housing properties are much older than 1970's and some of them have been re-roofed, but I certainly wouldn't expect that for one of the age the OP is looking at.

If built traditional they were built to be owned and maintained by the LA rather than be sold for a quick profit. So you are looking at the area rather than the house in isolation for resale value.
It has as good transport options, schools and access to services so ticks a lot of boxes.

I would take a walk around the local streets checking out how many newly renovated properties how may ones are falling into disrepair how may brownfield sites which could end up as building sites go through the local paper reports for develoment stories and check the LA plans for any long term plans for new developments road widening or bus or cycle lanes or even road closing which would inpact on local traffic patterns

Never had a problem with my absolutely rock solid ex-council house.

Friends who have newish builds? Subsidence, poor construction, 'new' trees causing issues, tiny rooms, tiny gardens, all sorts of restrictions ("no you cant put a higher fence up in your own garden"), paper thin walls, a porch just literally falling away one morning......

I live in an ex-council house in the 'poor' end of a very expensive town. I'd say 90-95% of the houses on this road (and those surrounding) are now privately owned.

The house is solidly built, if a little uninspiring to look at, but has off-street parking for two cars and a biggish back garden- both qualities that most of the privately-built properties in similar proximity to the town lack.

They sell very, very quickly because of the above and the well-rated schools in the town. Definitely a worthy purchase, imo.

One of my first houses was ex council, rural, huge garden, really solid. Moved on because the kids got bigger so we moved into town. Now we are about to complete on an almost identical house, solid, rural, 0.5 acre garden and ex council. The survey came back with few issues. Built to last these houses!

Our previous excouncil house 1950s, the council re-roofed all the houses and added external insulation. That's how you can now tell which ones are excouncil and which ones aren't. When they were doing the work, I remember thinking it made our house look grabby with the old roof and asbestos fascias.