Selling house to housing association

Flossthedog

A relative of a work colleague has moved out of the ex-council house she owns into a smaller, more manageable flat, as she's getting on.

The trouble is, she's having great difficulty selling the house, as not only is it ex-council, but the local authority have also moved some 24 carat ne-er-do-wells into the flats opposite, in order to demolish the flats they've trashed in another part of the borough. This means the road has developed a ghastly reputation, and I doubt if she'll ever get a private buyer.

Is it possible to offer houses to housing associations? If so, how does one go about it?

goldbyron

I was wondering this exact same thing as myself and my partner have two flats (one above the other) and it would be so much easier to sell them as a package. I was thinking if it would be possible to sell to a Housing Association as there is little social housing in my area but I would have thought some need (edges of North East London).

The_Eponymous_M

With my work hat on...

At present, a lot of Housing Associations aren't touching properties on the open market with a barge pole, unless they are cheap. And when I say cheap, I mean CHEAP.

I recently tried to persuade a large Housing Association to purchase a property available on the open market for a prospective tenant with extremely specific needs. This property was in outer East London and was up for £230,000 for a 3 bed property, so was a fairly good price. I was informed that they were currently only purchasing 3 bed properties that were under £180,000 which even at the time, was extremely low.

The problem most have is a fair bit of capital is tied up in current projects and raising funds is difficult; many HA's actually run at a loss at the moment. You have to bear in mind that whilst the mortgage the HA can get is £1000 p/m, the social rent would be more like £400-600 a month, leaving a big hole. Until central government makes some of the cash it keeps promising available, I doubt there will be many HA purchases at anything like the market value.

Most Housing Associations will only purchase at the behest of the Local Authority, so you also need to consider the need for social housing in the area; for example the need for 1 bedroom flats, in most areas, is negligible compared to the need for 4 bed houses; if you have a 1 bed flat you want to sell to an HA, you'd be lucky to get an offer for 3/4 of the market value, whilst a 4 bed house might get 5/6 market value.

Without my "we need to get properties" work hat on, I'd suggest renting it out in the private sector until the market picks up. Your local authority should be able to give a list of managing agents that it uses.

gandhim

I'm interested in trying to sell my concrete flat to the housing association who own the estate, but I haven't heard from them yet. It's difficult to sell the flat on the open market - it's on the 10th floor and it failed to sell at auction. Does anyone have any ideas/suggestions or names of housing associations who buy concrete flats in London?