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?

I live in a new build - don’t do it. We have social housing but it’s fine - that’s not the issue - new builds are just shite.

🙄

Don’t do it

No one is saying all SH tenants are problematic. But a proportion are and if you have lived next door to them you will not want to repeat the experience.

Not sure what the eye roll is for 🤷‍♀️, I was just saying what I know of the two local new build estates incorporating SH.

Also OP, I’m sure someone else has already mentioned it but it’s really not that easy to get rid of problem tenants, so that was definitely bullshit from the salesperson.

If I was renting I’d take a punt, if buying then I wouldn’t chance it.

We back onto an estate that is social housing. Majority of people are fine but one or two problem families are enough to make it unpleasant. The carpark area is the worst, groups of youngsters from those families hanging around older ones with cars with massive speaker systems, smoking weed, dropping litter and being obnoxious late into the night. It became really unpleasant to sit in the garden in the recent good weather. Kids, litter and constantly barking dogs (that never get walked) have spoiled what was a peaceful village. You absolutely can get twatish neighbours in a posh place, but probably not the foul language/ antisocial groups.

Isn't there just.........?

A hard no from me.

Don’t do it OP, it’s not worth the risk

Don't believe anything that the developers tell you. A relative of mine was spun a similar yarn - oh they're all really nice people etc. The police were always being called out, drugs, prostitution etc. Find a different house

I'm in SH myself and wouldnt want to live on an estate again. I got lucky with an exchange and ended up on a mostly privately owned street. The housing association only own a couple of houses here. I'm staying put!

I'm in no way any kind of snob. But I am grateful for my home. I work and pay my own rent and take care of the house, as many other SH tenants do. But there are a minority who take their homes for granted and just dont give a shit. They know they're virtually untouchable. Its actually quite hard to evict a SH tenant. It only takes one or two to make things unbearable for everyone else.

OP- neighbours can be utter assholes wherever you live. Your house price is your house price it doesn’t take account of horrid neighbours, as nobody ever puts that down on the form. If the house you’re looking at is nice and affordable to you, the area is nice, then that’s your priority. The comments on this thread are unreal. As though private home ownership is the only factor to guarantee you have nice neighbours and a good community 🙄

I live vicariously through these kind of OPs. I can’t imagine feeling apprehensive about living near social housing. I don’t even think I know any areas where I could move to to avoid that laughs in poor

Yep

The new homes near our school have a large number of social housing. It has been an absolute disaster for the area, especially the non-social housing residents, with daily antisocial behaviour problems (vandalism, theft, trespassing, verbal abuse, rubbish being dumped, etc), due to unsupervised, roaming destructive children. And their parents don't actually parent them, many find their children's behaviour 'funny' and blame everyone else when their children are called out for their behaviour by others. Madness.

Did your relative hear this first hand from the police? Those pesky call outs all the time for ‘drugs and prostitution’ on a new build estate that had a mix of HA and private properties? Must have pulled them away from the city centre which smelt of roses and was trouble free.

Utter rubbish. I was sold that shit. They’d be at work eg teachers trying to get on the housing ladder!!? The people that moved in near me were people who had not managed to live in other social housing. They call it pepper potting. I sold at a huge loss as I hated police most nights, fights, screaming and drug use near to my house. I was gutted.

This is a very odd thread...my son lives in a new build social housing property. Mixed development, quiet, nice property. Normally I would expect a mixed response to the OP's thread but the vitriol on here is something else.

Very true

God it’s so depressing that people’s experience of SH tenants on new estates is so bad. So many decent people crying out for SH

@Funkylights The thing is ..its not peoples real experience. Just a lot of bored people posting at midnight.

People are not removed for bad behaviour. They're not removed for breaking any of the tenancy agreements. How do I know? I live next door to a horrible family.
I think the reality is that councils can't be bothered. Police can't be bothered. It takes a lot to remove a tenant, esp if they have children.

You won't know what it is like to live there until you do. It could be lovely, it could be shit. But to think you're protected, well, I think is too trusting.

on average there are going to be more feckless knobs in SH than other types of accommodation though! Not because owning or private renting magically endorses you with some sort of moral superiority but purely stats - feckless fucking knobs (of which there are a fair amount in this country), have to live somewhere, and by the very dint of being feckless they are going to be less likely to afford private rents or sufficient savings for a deposit and mortgage, therefore, because they have no other housing option, are more likely to be a priority for SH (rightly or wrongly), than 'decent hard working people' who often get shafted to the end of the list because they have a job and good references so can rent privately, even if they struggle to afford it and would really benefit from SH.

Obviously that doesn't mean you can't also be a fucking knob working in private banking and owning a 5 bed detached, or that all, most, or even many SH tenants are feckless fucking knobs.

if one house in a street was SH, most people wouldn't bat an eyelid. Whole estate of SH and even if only 10% are problematic and 90% lovely, it's fair enough to not want to risk the 10% being your neighbour!

Nottingham uni completed some research exploring the likelihood of being victim of crime/having to deal with anti-social behaviour and compared owner occupied and SH areas. 20% more likely to report nuisance neighbours in SH. Of course statistics can’t tell you about that particular estate so it may be absolutely fine, but I think if you have other options, it’s probably wise to consider them. We pulled out of a house sale because council had large development planned beside it and haven’t regretted it - friend lives there and it has changed since new development went up. Absolutely the very small minority of people in SH but estate agent lying about how easy it is to move people - take everything EA says with pinch of salt.

This is a very odd pile on...

I bought my first house on a new development in the 90s. I hadn’t realised there was social housing opposite me and it was a nightmare. I had the window broken on my car, bits stolen off the car, planters stolen, my shed broken into….. The police visited regularly and one of the men murdered his partner. I was living alone and working unsocial hours as a nurse so I never felt safe. It was a lovely house in a great setting but honestly they spoilt it.