New build estates and "Social Housing"

Mrs C and I are seriously looking at new build properties, and perhaps as soon as this weekend could put down our deposit.

I do have an ever growing concern about the social housing that is quite close to a particular property that we both like, everything else about it is perfect except for the fact that it is directly opposite (and partially surrounded by) “affordable rented” and “shared ownership” housing.

Has anyone bought a new build property near social housing? what are your experiences? good or bad?

I’m not after a middle-class social bashing and speculation, i’m after *real world* experiences.

Thanks in advance Hive.

I wouldn’t bother.I tarmac new estates like these and after two months of
moving in theres toys/trampolines/etc strewn on gardens everywhere.
Bet i’ve done hundreds last year and it’s rare to find a good one.
Nearly free houses = Dregs (imho)

Bought my first house in similar type of setting and it was a nightmare to the extent that mrs wouldn’t stay in the house on her own, the social housing was trashed.

Ok, that’s 2-0 so far… Any positive experiences? 🙂

All depends on your financial situation, your own situation and tolerance to others.

Personally I know of too many friends that have had / are having a nightmare.

It ( the model) doesn’t work!

I wouldn’t contemplate it for a second.

Sorry

It can depend upon the lottery of who the social landlord is and the tenants you get. However, shared ownership properties should be no different to owner occupied.

One point to note is that most social housing is now set at a market rent and this can mean that you often get working families who just want a more responsible landlord.

A mate at work lives on an estate just like you describe, except the developer explicitly said that next door wouldn’t be social housing… Anyway the first neighbours were hell and for 8 months they were suffering and tried to sell etc. Its like night and day now with decent neighbours and life appears to be normal.

You can get terrible neighbours who are owner occupiers, private rented or social housing.

I’m baffled as to why you would be wanting to buy a new build. I’ve not seen anything built in the last 10 years that was anything other than pokey, badly laid out, poorly constructed and on marginal land in the unknown end of town.
As above, the social housing depends on the landlord. I’ve seen good and bad on that front, and I’ve also had shockingly bad neighbours who earned far more than I did in ‘nice’ areas. This is my 8th residence in 10 years, so it isn’t like I’ve not been moving.

TooTall +1.

not to mention lack of storage in new builds

where can you fit your bikes!!

When the wife and I were looking to buy our first house, we looked at new builds but the fact they all have a percentage of “affordable housing” put us off. Since working for a local authority for a while after that and getting to see plenty of them, we don’t regret that decision one bit.

Depends on the family profile in the social housing. If it includes any material number of families with teenagers (which we have in the one near us), you can expect vandalism, petty theft and used condoms left in playgrounds

This thread is a serious eye opener and worthy of both “Jesus wept” and “Wow, just wow”.

Shakes head and walks off.

Hmmmm. Its not looking good…
If it makes any difference, the area is in a very nice little town which is well regarded, the house is in no way pokey and has plenty of storage (the garage is MASSIVE). The vast majority of the housing is shared ownership, with a splattering of social.

Does that change anything? 🙂

I live in one of those social housing properties that you are so worried about..

We are a low income family of four working all the hours god sends getting a new business off the ground..
Our neighbours are a guy that works in Tesco and his young family and a working single mum that lives with her 10 year old son..
Our mates 3 doors down are another young family of four, both parents working, the father is a full time forestry worker, mum works part time at a stables..

I think this mix of housing allocation works very well, certainly on this estate, and others that I know of..
I think that everyone wants to get on with their neighbours, regardless of their personal income, and bad neighbours are roundly disliked regardless of the range of social circumstances within the community..
This mixture of allocation has the added bonus that there will always be a few handy blokes that aren’t allergic to community spirit living in your street, that you can turn to when you need help to deal with neighbourhood problems.. 😉
Think of us as your guardian angels, like the Hells Angels providing security at Altamont 😆

I think a couple of the home owners at the top of our road were a bit nervous when the ‘chavs’ started moving in (the home owners houses were finished a year before the social housing properties), the guy who’s car I helped dig out of the snow looked like he was literally going to wee with fright..
I can understand and forgive the apprehension though, we all fear that which we don’t understand..

😆

glupton1976 – Member
This thread is a serious eye opener and worthy of both “Jesus wept” and “Wow, just wow”.
Shakes head and walks off.

Everyone’s opinion is welcome here – come on, spit it out 🙂

Yunki – if you don’t *see* the problem, maybe you ARE the problem!

I of course jest. I was brought up on a council estate and most people were lovely. I’ve also had neighbours from hell (drugs, prostitutes, all night music etc). I’m potentially spending large (to me) sums of money and don’t want to be unhappy.

It would be the fact it’s a new build that puts me off, not the nearby housing.

I work in gardens and see the outsides of new build houses falling apart after a year, no idea what the insides are like but if fences, patios and gutters aren’t being built properly, I can’t imagine the insides are much better.

I’m sure there are problems elsewhere.. we’re lucky to live in a great area

When you buy a house, unless you are buying one where you own the land as far as you can see you’re pretty much unable to ‘control’ your neighbours.

And tbh the last ‘estate/development’ we lived on probably had more rented houses than owned, as in lots of BTL.

It’s all luck of the draw.
I bought my new build house 7 years go (tiny ‘estate’) of 5 houses and there is a block of eight 3 story houses in front of us (with some decent sized trees/hedges separating us). 6 are privately owned, 2 are housing authority. When I bought there were no problems but after six months one set of old folks moved out and the local housing authority decided to try one if their social experiments by moving in a family from hell (in the hope that being around ‘nice’ people would rub off on them). It didn’t.
We’ve all now endured years of stupidly loud music, screaming street arguments, fights, lots of police presence, foul mouthed abusive kids, drug dealing, abuse (dad was recently removed for assaulting the kids – he’s back now).
To be fair they’ve been far better of late and don’t hugely impact on us anymore but it’s taught me a valuable lesson and I would never buy near social housing again as it can be a nightmare and its not as if you can simply move as nobody else wants to live near these people and you have to drive past their badly maintained house to get to ours.

Having said that, the second house is lived in by a working couple who have been fine so again, it’s all down to luck. The bad family don’t work, never have, never will so they’re there all the time, although their 18 yr old son (recently a father) is now in prison and that’s helped.
You have to make a judgement call and hope for the best I’m afraid but it’s not a gamble I’d take again.
Good luck!

We bought a new build last year. It’s on a small-ish development (~70 houses) and it’s well proportioned, light, airy and has plenty of storage – so not all new builds are crap (some are def rabbit hutches though). It’s mainly big 3/4 bedroom houses plus quite a few big 5/6 bed houses and there are a few Maserattis (sp?) and Porsches (none of which are mine).

There are ~15 or so ‘social’ houses but all bar one are part ownership for ‘key workers’. So far, so good, everyone is friendly. Whilst we were waiting to move we rented for a bit on a bigger estate were there was more ‘not done a days work in their life housing’ and whilst it wasn’t great, it wasn’t scary with gangs of feral kids roaming around.

So from my limited experience I’d say factor in how big the development is (bigger prob = worse), the type of social housing (rented -v- shared ownership), the % of social -v- private, and the size of the houses and the % make up (if it’s lots of small 2/3 bed houses then they’re more likely to be BTL so could be rented out to anyone).

EDIT: just to add – it’s good that people learn that not everyone is like them so mixing housing stock is a good thing.

HTH.

Avoid if at all possible. I was very much in favour of this kind of development prior to living in one. It’s horrible.

isn’t there legislation dictating that all new housing developments have to have a certain percentage of social housing allocation available..?

that would make ‘this kind of development’ the only kind of development which I think is an absolutely great idea for many reasons

telegraph article

one of the main differences between rented social housing and mortgaged social housing,is that the renters,havent got the money to pay off a huge debt to the bank and building society.

If you rent you dont have a material intrest in your property, and dont see it as an investment,but then again i see a lot of over priced houses, where owners have over borrowed to get a bigger house and then cant afford the repairs and maintance.

With social housing it depends a lot on the landlord about who the tennants are and their respoonsibilites to other tennants living near by.

With any house visit varios times of the day and night, and put the address in google etc, and nethouseprice.com, to see how many times the houses locally have been sold.

one of the main differences between rented social housing and mortgaged social housing,is that the renters,havent got the money to pay off a huge debt to the bank and building society.

and?

Many other countries in Europe have life-long renting as normal. It does not undo the very fabric of the universe and anarchy doth not reign on street corners.

and dont see it as an investment

I don’t think that’s exactly right..

I don’t have a financial tie to my family home, but I still put a lot of time, money and effort into making it a nice cosy place for my kids to grow up in.. and equally I invest a lot of effort into ensuring that they will have a healthy community to be part of, and a good environment to develop in..

It was thatcher who sold off the ex council housing stock and refused councils permsion to build or renew existing stock, rent or mortgage, we all need to have a roof and walls.

Some people only see the words ‘wealth’ and ‘investment’ as financial terms, rather than having wider meaning.

OK – we live in social housing provided by a housing association. Everyone in our street has a decent job. I have lived in much more upmarket “respectable” places than this, I prefer where I stay now as it’s quieter, nobody bothers you and if folk see that you might need a hand with something they will offer to help and ask nothing in return.

Between my and my wife we have 4 degrees of various types (soon to be 5).

We bring in a good amount of money between us and could afford a mortgage on a house elsewhere, but we quite like it here and wont be moving any time soon.

and dont see it as an investment

I don’t think that’s exactly right..

I don’t have a financial tie to my family home, but I still put a lot of time, money and effort into making it a nice cosy place for my kids to grow up in.. and equally I invest a lot of effort into ensuring that they will have a healthy community to be part of, and a good environment to develop in..

Quite a lot of people think renting is so wrong, i dont,and i see a lot of people investing in their council or housing authority home, not so much in private landlords homes who they see as grabbing.

I’m baffled as to why you would be wanting to buy a new build. I’ve not seen anything built in the last 10 years that was anything other than pokey, badly laid out, poorly constructed and on marginal land in the unknown end of town.

I would have agreed until we found out first home – was 6 yrs old, VERY well planned – somehow managed to fit 3 proper sized double bedrooms (two with en suites), family bathroom, we, large lounge, kitchen/diner, and built in garage, without feeling cramped! It is over three floors though….
The garden was small, which was an appeal for us!

There was social housing around the corner, which DID have its share of rusted bikes on their grass and thy did leave a fair bit of pointless litter on the communal grass, but we never had any grief from them in terms of violence/noise…

DrP

Yunki – this Govt is relaxing the obligations on developers to include affordable housing in their developments, because doing so was seen as an unfair burden on them.

There was social housing around the corner, which DID have its share of rusted bikes on their grass

Niche retro SS’s?

Have any of the shared/rented properties sold, I.e. why don’t you just go and say hello? Just because they haven’t got the opportunity to be able to afford a private ownership don’t assume their (self edited to save banning)

Its still pretty much off plan (although the builds are quite progressed) so there’s no real indication yet :/

Wouldn’t go anywhere near a new build that was close, yet alone directly opposite social or affordable housing not only for the reasons already listed by lots of people above but also due to the huge loss you’ll make if/when you sell it due partly to the premium you’ll be paying (as its a new build) but mainly as people won’t want to buy near/opposite social housing when its no longer a new build. Sorry.

Meh, I own an ex-council flat, one of 30 flats in 3 blocks. Had a problem with one other neighbour. Who was privately renting one of the other flats. Now I have a new patio, and the sun shines once more upon my life 🙂

Seriously though, I don’t see what you describe as a real issue. You could be unlucky with your new neighbours, you could meet some lovely people. Same as anywhere else. As pointed out, isn’t this the model for housing provision going forward?

@RichPenny – ex-council is very different from a new build with affordable housing next to it. For starters your block will be well looked after and from experience older council tenants are v grateful for what housing they got and therefore looked after it. Newer council tenants, or those in affordable housing do not look after it so much and then the problems begin.

Sorry to burst your bubble vanilla, but nothing you’ve said applies in my reality. In my block of 6 flats, 5 are private owned, the one problem neighbour was renting one of those flats. Both council tenants, who are opposite me, have been lovely. Their flat is in a better condition than mine! My neighbours are a mix of all ages.

My block is not particularly well looked after IMO. Genuine question, what is your experience of older versus newer council tenants?

Although most affordable housing schemes are for key workers such as nurses, teachers, fire-fighters and police officers, thousands of first-time buyers from other backgrounds are also able to take advantage of these government funded incentives, as some are open to anyone with a steady job.

What exactly makes nurses, teachers, fire-fighters and police officers bad neighbours?