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?

Depends where you live. Where I live that would not have happened.

Most have disability as the top banding. Even more so if an adapted property is needed which was the case for us.

But i DO live in social housing. You need to read what i posted not that far upthread.

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

And they did this because its what people/voters wanted.

True but as I said in my other comment I was homeless for a year with my kids and didn’t get anywhere with it. And that is also supposed to be top priority. Where I live (and in many parts of the uk now) they only house the most fucked up

Yeah, and it’s not to do with the social. It’s to do with the wider market and developers don’t have the margins they once had. New builds used to immediately devalue in completion but now they’re going at a much lower price as they need them off books, there no premium anymore

How fantastic to see that brilliant book quoted here!

And i fucking well do live amongst it.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4877365-to-think-housing-associations-should-have-more-accountability-who-they-choose-to-allocate-homes-to?reply=128595564

In my area, homeless is band B but disability is band A. I unfortunately also know people in temporary accommodation who were made homeless on band B who have been waiting for years.

Temporary accommodation wasn't suitable for my son which is a reason why I was band A and got housed quickly.

And, again, blaming the feral families’ actions on other people is ridiculous. No-one else is to blame for their actions.

I wasnt blaming others for their actions Try to think critically

I bought my first house in the early 2000s, when housing associations had to have a certain ratio of private to tenanted properties per road/estate.
When we viewed the estate agent questioned whether I'd thought it through and wanted to go ahead due to the bad reputation of the area.
I was there for 5 years, with some really lovely neighbours. The type that would help you change your tyre if it was flat/shout you a pint of milk when you couldn't get to the shop etc.
I wouldn't right the house off just because of HA properties being near by.

You explicitly were. You wrote “When this happens there is no chance to build communities and you get the very ghettos people are complaining about. ”

Your inability to assign agency to the people you live among is bizarre.

You need to quote my whole post and be a bit less selective

THIS is the whole post

Its what ppl wanted Do i really need to pull the threads screeching for five year fixed tenancies. They wanted housing estates to be treated like hostels with ppl being moved around like chess pieces.
When this happens there is no chance to build communities and you get the very ghettos people are complaining about. Never has the phrase "be careful what you wish for" been so apt

You definitely don’t have to be “absolutely desperate” or “next level fucked” or whatever else is being said, to get a council house. We were privately renting (although definitely struggling with rent costs), as were some of our lovely neighbours on our current HA street, and we were on the council list just incase we happened to be lucky enough for something to come up. We got extremely lucky and now live in a HA house. My experience on previous HA streets was also that most people were normal, hardworking (albeit minimum wage style jobs) and kind people. But like I said in a previous post, it just takes 1 person who is an absolute nightmare to destroy it for everyone else and on 1 street this did happen. Everybody on the street complained to the HA repeatedly, some people even reported her to the police and unfortunately nothing was done. We moved to a rented property and have no idea what ever happened to the lady who ruined the street for everyone else.

And we live in a VERY sought after area, but there’s hell of a lot of new build estates going up around here and therefore HA houses have to be built in these estates now too, so despite being in a sought after area, there are many many houses being built.

Well having been someone given a new house in social housing on a new estate where half was private and I only lasted 6 months...Once every one on social side started moving in it became rowdy, the walls were paper thin, people on private side constantly falling out with several neighbours because of multiple cars and parties,loud music etc..lovely house but didn't work for me

We live in a solitary cottage on one side of a country lane. Om the other side of the lane there is a small 'council' estate. A lot of these have been bought privately. In years gone by the local authority properties were inhabited by elderly people and everything was quiet and everybody knew everybody. Sadly, as these elderly folk passed away the social housing was reallocated. Several of the new tenants are a nuisance! One has frequent visits from men with a truck. They park in the single track lane and throw all manner of rubbish over the fence. The tenants then have a massive bonfire, usually in bright sunny weather. The lane and surrounding properties are enveloped in acrid smoke. Ash falls everywhere. All over our front and back gardens and covering our cars. I imagine they have some sort of garden and house clearance business going on. OK, so they're not flytipping but they have no consideration for others' washing or properties. I have attempted to report this but the local authority don't seem interested. Others have let weeds and trees grow behind their fences backing onto the lane. And the one immediately opposite had squatters for years. The garden was a jungle and the broken back fence had foliage spilling out into the lane. An ugly sight from our front windows. Happy to say it has now all been cleared and the outlook is lovely. Another tenant has a dog that has killed cats and used to escape over the back fence until they raised the fencing - badly. So I can see your point!

Might copy and paste this the next time i see someone say pensioners are blocking social housing and should move out What you have described is a consequence of the residulisation i mentioned upthread.

I think you are agreeing with me. Indeed, these tenants do seem to change quite regularly. We had a local parish councillor who always got things done. Lovely man. But now there appears to be no-one to oversee problems. There are some really lovely folk around this small village; but it's the minority who spoil it for the majority. I would point out tho, there are one or two homeowners who are complete arseholes, so we can't always blame those in social housing!

I went to see my shared ownership new build last night, we are the last but one house in the street before the social housing starts; a couple of rows of 3 bed semis or terraces of 3, and then a small block maybe 20 flats. the whole estate is small, lets say 60 houses, 20 flats and its nearly 50:50 shared ownership to rentals. Apparently the local authority has nomination rights to all the social housing, so not the housing association we are with.

Should I just give up now? I'm not due to exchange for a couple of weeks, I'd lose around £700 in initial fees. No idea what I could do after that, family/friends are aghast that I am considering not taking it as I've been looking for nearly 18 months. This thread has made me think I'd be insane to carry on with the purchase but at the same time forced to (can't stay in rental).

Are you not safe in your rental set up? @DecisionTime123

I would carry on renting for now (somewhere different) and see where the property market goes over the next year. There will always be shared ownership homes if you change your mind. But after you ‘buy’ if the problems begin - and you’ve been given a good picture here of possible issues - then it won’t be easy to leave and your life could be a living hell. For me it would too much if a risk and I sat that as someone with a low deposit, currently renting, has a stable job so an ideal SO buyer but I’ve done lots of research and it’s a no-no for me.

DecisionTime123 I posted earlier on this thread as I previously owned an ex council house, a HA took over the other council houses and for years it was fine. Then two HA houses became vacant when the elderly tenants went into a care home/died. The houses were completely refurbished and the new tenants were horrendous - fighting the street, all night parties, drugs etc etc. We sold and moved. It only takes one or two bad apples to change the whole atmosphere. I would never buy a property where there is social housing close by again

@Zanatdy
You have just reminded me of something I was told by my cousin who worked in a local council housing department
She said that in the outside london borough she worked for housing associations would approach the them for land to build on and said council would agree but state that the associations had to have families from their housing list rehoused in a portion of these houses
AND they always gave them the problem families..........

@DecisionTime123 What have you decided to do?

I've got till roughly 25th June to decide; preferably before, but I might be forced to take this (too long a story for this thread). Should I hope it'll all be ok, or blow my life up and start looking for somewhere else. I presume @ohwhats was in a better position to choose? I think they said they'd already decided to walk away?