Ex-council / Ex-local authority flats

thelawnet

Walle!!!!ch wrote:

This is a general query that I've had for a long time now. Why is it that ex-council flats sell at a discount to regular flats in the same area (in some cases, these discounts are as sizeable as 20-25%, esp my area in the Docklands)? Is it because there is a general stigma associated with these houses, that their upkeep wouldn't exactly have been the best in the world, and hence, it'll take some more investment to bring it back to shape? Or is it just that there is bureaucracy involved in anything you need to do with such houses in terms of mtce / onward resale...

... or have I got all this completely wrong?

Probably the neighbours.

A friend waited on the council list to get one of their nicer properties, a detached house near Aylesbury. Nice, with a garden, etc., lovely. After a few years they would be able to buy it for peanuts.

Unfortunately next door the council are housing a family of drug dealers. When they asked the drug dealers to stop parking in front of their house they got threatened and had their car smashed in with a baseball bat, and they can hardly go and tell the police when the drug dealer family and their connections would know what had happened and they are frightened.

A number of council house tenants are scum of the earth. Unfortunately they still have to be housed, and such people are significantly more likely to be living in current or ex-council property than in private acoommodation. It's a rare estate that doesn't have at least some nasty criminals living on it.

lowis

it is always wise to find out when the last major works were carried out on the block and whether the council has any plans for any more to be done.

3 months before i put in for my RTB the council renovated my 11 floor block - new lifts, brickwork repairs, painting, new windows, new doors, resurfacing of all communal flooring and private balconies, new fans in kitchen & bathroom and cleaning of brickwork. i will not be liable for the cost of this apparently as it was carried out before i applied and 6 months before my S125 was issued.

it is highly unlikely that a council will carry out this type of major refurb job more than once in any 10-15 year period - afterall they don't have too much money to spare!

also, keep an eye out for any 'New Deal' type investment that may be planned for the area your council flat is in - sometimes leaseholders are recharged for certain types of works that are carried out in the area - not necessarily works limited to the block or estate.

link: http://www.epolitix.com/NR/exeres/0F7F36FA-18B4-4C9B-8D19-8435C1F6A589

dander

I've recently moved up the world - used to live in an ex-council flat, now live in an ex-council house! I love them - I think they're an excellent way to get bigger, better quality housing for a cheaper price. For many years council properties had very strict rules on room size, ceiling height etc. whereas there were no regulations in the private sector - hence those box-room bedrooms!

There is a stigma with them hence the cheaper price, but it varies with area. Size of estate seems to make a big difference - an ex-council on a big estate (houses or flats) sells a lot cheaper than a private build - but an ex-council in a small run of houses, or a small block in a bomb in-fill can often go for very near to private costs.

There are a lot of horror stories about maintenance fees in council properties, but it's not actually as common as the TV would like you to believe. There are strict rules about how councils can charge for maintenance, every job has to go to tender and tenants have the right to suggest particular companies - or object if they think the wrong company is being used, or the charges excessive.

I spent 12 years in a council flat and I found the real benefit was that when things needed doing - they actually got done. I know loads of people in private flats who've had small problems that have escalated and caused major damage while all the tenants and neighbours argued about what should be done, who should pay etc.

And I NEVER got hit for these huge costs people always talk about.

singlehouseholder

Hello, I bought my flat off the council and I loved it!!! It was in an area purpose built for elderly folk and it was really quiet. As a result the prices soared, I paid £11.5k and sold 4 yrs later for almost 70k, sweet!! Also, I paid leasehold to the council but this covered cost for the external, also if anything happened to the roof, adjoining walls, then the cost of this was covered. Just because its council, dont mean its bad, we have an area some 20mins away, which is all private, and I wouldn't live there if you paid me!! The vast majority of the flats are owned by landlords, who rent the flats out to smackheads and short term lets. Its a good idea to have a look at, upmystreet, on the net, it gives indications and trends of prices and the demographic population, I used it when I bought my new house. Research, research , research!!!

NervousYetFeisty

singlehouseholder wrote:

Just because its council, dont mean its bad, we have an area some 20mins away, which is all private, and I wouldn't live there if you paid me!! The vast majority of the flats are owned by landlords, who rent the flats out to smackheads and short term lets.

Exactly. In my experience social landlords are more responsible than private landlords. I live in a HA flat (all council housing in the area was handed over to an HA some years back). Any trouble with anti-social behaviour gets dealt with by the HA and everyone here knows that such behaviour can lead to eviction. My experience of private landlords is completely different.

We have had a little trouble from a BTL flat in the block - however as the HA actually run the block, they can (and do) exert pressure on the owner of that flat to do something about it.

lowis

whether it is council or private i guess it comes down to the old adage 'location, location, location'.

i wouldn't buy my flat if it was located on a big estate in tottenham, but as it is on an estate with just 3 blocks (total 180 flats) in clerkenwell EC1 it makes the decision MUCH easier

i figure that even if i get hit for 30k's worth of bills which then added to the purchase price of 92k still makes it a good buy/investment, the cheapest 1 bed flats in EC1 are about 150-160k for something fairly grotty on bigger estates.