New build on a new estate and social housing. I expect I’ll get torn to shreds but can I have your experiences please?

[ohwhats]

We are looking at buying the last house on a street that backs on to an area of the new estate that will be 50 plus houses owned by a housing association.
The house will be a real bargain, they are throwing all sorts of incentives in as I’m sure they want it sold asap as it will be ready in about 6 weeks time.
The sales advisor explained that the tenants will all be working and they won’t be misbehaving as they will lose their tenancy if they do.
DH thinks it will be fine and we should take a chance but I’m really not sure. Had anyone bought next to AH on a new build estate?

Do NOT buy this house. Your lives will be ruined by anti-social behaviour. Buy somewhere else; where the neighbours have to work for a living to pay their mortgages.

Why do you feel the need to do this?

@Menohaze
You are so right about noise and privacy
Last night till about 3 in the morning had noise/music several fences down from a houses drinking session in their back garden
With toddlers constantly screeching....
And it wasn't even the warmest night it's been recently 😑

Because she’s being rude and derogatory. Doing jobs that “snobs” won’t do that’s an acceptable slur is it?

Most doctors that I know had to spend time working in care home during their A-levels that they achieve A stars in whilst helping out at weekends, not needing or wanting the money in the slightest but needing the reference so having to do a better job than those on who were going to be there for the rest of their career.

Imagine paying half a million for a house and living two doors down from Shazza and Gazza who pay £500 a month who let their kids throw rocks at cars and uproot the herbacious border for a laugh.

That has been done deliberately

John Boughton (author of Municipal Dreams The Rise and Fall of Council Housing) on the welfarisation of council housing.
//www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/the-rise-and-fall-of-council-housing-56139
Inthe 1980s, residualisation may have been a partly unintended consequence of housing policies pursued with varying ideological intent
Since 2010, and more so since the return of single-party Conservative government in 2015, we’ve seen something further: welfarisation – ‘a conception of social housing as a very small, highly residualised sector catering only for the very poorest, and those with additional social “vulnerabilities”, on a short-term “ambulance” basis

That was an interesting, if somewhat depressing, read. Thanks for sharing.

I am in process of buying a new build and 30% of the estate is affordable housing. I am not directly near those houses, and i’m not sure if i’d have proceeded if my back garden was connected. Especially after reading experiences in new build FB group. Of course private owners can also be nightmare neighbours, but some social housing tenants do behave badly which tarnishes all with the same brush.

Did the “as a cohort” bit confuse you?

Read John Boughtons book Ive mentioned it above
Middle Ground by Joe Carpenter is also a good one.

Maybe i just got lucky but I bought a shared ownership flat in a new build social house development back in 2010. It was in london, and I never had any issues with neighbours. There were a lot of kids playing outside and I suspected my neighbours were dealing drugs, but i was out at work all day and never experienced anything bad / always felt safe. The development did start to get a bit run down after a while but I ended up buying 100% of the property and sold it in 2021 for a big profit with no problems. It was a very premium part of london though, so I think i accepted that you will have all sorts of neighbours.

I'll warn you, 30 plus years working in social housing.

Only the first lettings of the properties have to be to working people. After that, it's whoever is top of the waiting list....whether that's a drug dealer, a working person, a family with 7 unruly children.....

I'd avoid like the plague

This is a post from another thread im on The behaviour described here came from the social housing contractors not the tenant

Dixie81 · 03/06/2026 13:36
Don’t do it. I made that mistake and came home to find the place destroyed. Some sort of tar tracked through all my carpets, oily handprints everywhere, cigarette burns to my sofa and windowsills (with the butts still lying there), multiple breakages, along with missing jewellery, DVD’s and personal documents. The damages cost me thousands and the whole place had to be stripped and redecorated. They even stole all the food out of my freezer!
My neighbours had it even worse. They found beer tins everywhere, the workmen had clearly been using their bed and there was graffiti of male genitalia spray painted on their walls. It was horrific.
Insurance won’t cover the damage if you allow them in. I tried to sue but got nowhere because I couldn’t prove my house wasn’t a dump beforehand. These days I take full walk-through videos and photos before letting any social housing contractor in.

I live in a HA home and am currently VERY lucky with neighbours etc. The HA made the decision to put in good tenants who had proof of being good tenants previously (“bad” tenants get the crap houses round here). However, tenants move out and new ones move in and you just never know who it could be. Despite living in a HA house myself, if I were to be in a position to buy a home, I wouldn’t live by HA if I could help it. We previously lived on a street with just 1 awful neighbour and they were so so soooo bad! It was a lovely looking neighbourhood but my next door neighbour’s car window got smashed, fly tipping happened often, I watched a woman beat up her partner and watched the same awful woman throwing rocks at her child while chasing him down the street. The vast majority of people on my current street seem like really lovely hardworking people - how long it stays like that after people move on, I don’t know. However, I’m pretty sure any new build housing estates now have to include a certain percentage of HA housing too, so it’s difficult to avoid it.

I live in a shared ownership house on a mixed new build estate- most of the houses are well looked after and there is a pocket of our street which is rented HA and has a bad reputation for drug dealers- but generally we have had very few issues. I have had 2 horrendous neighbours- one is like Hyacinth Bucket, very narcissistic, keeps her house immaculate- she befriended me for a few years and tore me down behind my back and to other neighbours and to other parents on our school run. I am disabled and have 2 children with multiple sen needs- but she seems to have spread rumours that I am not not that disabled and scam the government- despite the fact I have 2 chronic illnesses and a blood clotting disorder- and one of my children has now been accepted into a specialist private school. I lost count of the number of times she shouted at me that I had no friends, everyone hated me or that I just wanted pity from people- I also had another neighbour who was encouraged by this neighbour to report us to social services when I shouted at my AuDHD and dyspraxic daughter - who was a toddler and not diagnosed at the time- and we had zero support from anybody. It all got dropped and they agreed we were trying our best with very little support- police told us they believed it was harrassment due to other incidents and asked us to keep a log. They didn't even talk to me about it. The other neighbour also got dogs and refused to train them, allowed them to bark a lot and destroy our shared fence- and at one point was leaving dog poo bags in the middle of our shared alley and did not care that we had to get our bins past it. I did complain to the HA, because in the end she had wrecked my mental health and I didn't want to address it with her because I knew she would be unkind and aggressive. I know we are kind and respectful neighbours though, my husband works full time and we are really good parents and manage our kids needs, we look after our house. My neighbour is moving out thankfully, I hope for better ones but at the end of the day it is a lottery who moves in regardless of where you live. There are some really lovely people here, and as I know, 99% of people work.

🤣 if only.

I lived on a new build estate for 9 years. Would I do it again - absolutely not. Loved my house but not the surrounds. We moved in the end to get away from it. Torched cars by jealous exes, police drug raids nearly every day. Homes with windows smashed and boarded up. It was like living in a ghetto and this was a village in a lovely area. It was the first new build estate, there’s now another 3 been added and the problems are rife.

Honestly op, I wouldn’t. (This is just my experience and I’m sure it’s not representative of everyone in a HA house). My neighour’s house belongs to the HA and they’re not great neighbours. Their teenage son plays drums to all hours, they smoke weed in the garden that stinks when my children are trying to play and they're messy. Their bin tipped over and their rubbish went everywhere. They left it all so I had to go out and collect it all because it looked awful.

Absolutely this!

We are housing association tenants and turned down a lovely 4 bed new build that we were offered-the whole outside looked awful with rubbish everywhere(old furniture aswell as just rubbish) and big children’s toys(slide etc) sat out in the car park.
We were being moved due to an issue with our house and antisocial behaviour from the neighbor so needed somewhere secure and safe to live which that just didn’t feel like.
Happy ending though we got an older house so maybe not as smart but in a much nicer area.

I grew up on a council estate and I really wouldn’t do it. Most people were lovely but the few that weren’t ruined it for everyone. It shouldn’t be allowed and these people should be evicted but they’re not. It wasn’t too terrible for me because my dad, was, well, a bit of a hard man, but for some of the other kids it was horrendous. My sister still lives there and her girls aren’t allowed to play out. She also drives them to a school away from the estate. So basically if you don’t have to risk this, then don’t. And feel bad for all the HA tenants that have no choice and get stuck with the neighbors from hell

Agree with most saying no, it doesn't take many residents to ruin the equilibrium, and I speak from experience. Honestly, I would not touch the place with a barge pole.

If you're questioning it then potential buyers will as well if/when you need to sell.

My ex-husband and I were in the same predicament 6 years ago. Lovely house and they were literally throwing incentives at us (it was out our budget otherwise) as it was beside a SH area/street. I have no issue with SH having grown up in a council house but the thing that put me off was would it put potential buyers off in the future. We ending up separating 3 years later and needed a quick house sale so I'm glad we didn't for that reason. Nobody knows what is round the corner.

Me too. I lasted two years. Awful awful experience.