Advice on knowing council houses in neighbourhood.

barnaby-bear

abeezar wrote: »

Hi

I am a first time buyer and I have liked a 3 bed property.

Is there a website to know the neighbourhood housing profile w.r.t to private housing and any council houses in that area or street.

I called up the council and they gave info...that the area has mix of council and private houses.
The area seems to be good to me.

The local estate agents have'nt provided much info.

I can't keep calling coucil for every house I like ..so is there a easy way to find out about the neighbourhood profile ....council housing on a partcicular street.

I have visited sites like ACORN/UPMYSTREET but they are very generalise.

I hope someone can enlighten me as I like the property and want to take a wise descision.

Regards
abee

An awful lot of council housing has been handed on to housing associations. IT is a tiny minority of council tenants who are a problem, I lived on a council estate and it was a few problem cases that caused 99% of the problems the majority are fine and you also get bad private tenants. However the really chaotic deranged ones who partied all night and were into drugs etc were classed as vunerable and the council couldn't easily sort them out as they had an obligation to house those who can't get housing elsewhere. Most owner occupiers have to go to work to pay the mortgage and have a vested interest in not devaluing property prices and it limits their antisocial behaviour to an extent. After loads of issues I wanted to be in a private area with low levels of rental.

I looked up all the local housing associations and the council maintenance lists and google searched for property repairs, planning permissions and allocation web sites for them. Most repair proposals and planning etc are available on their accounts/websites - it pretty much did the job. I then looked at local letting sites and identified high densities of private rentals.

I just wanted a nice stable community where the council wasn't obliged to house a handful of idiots. It isn't fair on the majority of decent, working council tenants who don't have the choice to move or any reflection on them.

EmRayMarRhys

Social housing policy now states that a proportion of any large development is given over to affordable and social housing.

So we're everywhere

mwhahahahhahahaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!

signed
a social housing tenant

tek-monkey

I grew up on a council estate, in a council house. Its still one of the nicest properties I've lived in

Engelbert

Council tenants are now given more choice when they re-do front doors so the front doors won't all look the same either...

barnaby-bear

EmRayMarRhys wrote: »

Social housing policy now states that a proportion of any large development is given over to affordable and social housing.

So we're everywhere

mwhahahahhahahaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!

signed
a social housing tenant

That's why went for a 1960s development.... BTLers not very interested as not that easy to maintain, not shiny like new builds, no % set aside for affordable, wholly private. It's a tiny tiny proportion of problem tenants but if ever meet them you run fast and far.... I personally think it's disgusting the councils are forced to support some of these people thus tarring other decent tenants, and forcing those decent people to put up with the tiny minority of idiots...

googler

Go to the street that you're interested in and make friends with the postman. If a regular postie, he'll know which houses get mail with council return address on it.

Look at zoopla, nethouseprice, ourproperty and myhouseprice for the street you're interested in. Anything which doesn't have a sale price on any of these websites MAY be a council-owned house. The trouble with this approach is it doesn't show any purchases before 2000 or 1995, dependin g on which site you look at, but it could get you some of the way to where you desire

Down my way, a particular style of council-fitted front door is a reasonably accurate guide, as is the style of exterior lights that the council fitted adjacent to the doors......

Morgan_Ree

googler wrote: »

Go to the street that you're interested in and make friends with the postman. If a regular postie, he'll know which houses get mail with council return address on it.

My council tax bill comes in a letter with the councils return address on it

Guess that 110% makes me a council tenant!!

ILW

Engelbert wrote: »

Council tenants are now given more choice when they re-do front doors so the front doors won't all look the same either...

Undercover council houses, whatever next?

EmRayMarRhys

What's really amusing me is that a neighbour of ours didn't know that we and our neighbours were social housing tenants for the first 18 months of us living here. It's 9 units in an estate of 140 by the way.

None of us in the 9 units have ever been any trouble in the four years we've lived here. No noise disturbances, nothing. As soon as they realised we were in social units the complaints flooded in - anything from not enough planting in the front gardens (we prefer just lawn for low maintainence) or too much (our neighbour) to one of us having a car that is 'too old' - erm.... limited income anyone?

The distinctly non amusing thing is that one of the 9 units underwent an exchange. We all now have a new neighbour who in the first few days of living here drove so recklessly in the estate (it's a cul de sac) that they almost hit a car parked across the road and then ran over a tree. Whilst kids were playing in the street.

I suppose now they actually have something to complain about.... as do we. Thing is most social housing tenants just want a quiet life too..... but we still incur unfair prejudices about us. I used to be a homeowner who through life circumstances and changes is now in social housing - it doesn't automatically make me a neighbour from hell or a yob.

pie81

I'd have thought you can generally tell roughly how the neighbours are likely to behave just by looking at how nicely kept the properties are. people who take care of their property (whether owner occupiers or council or private tenants) are likely to behave decently too.

So, nicely kept front garden, well kept paintwork, tidy bins etc = good
Overflowing bins, discarded furniture, broken curtains etc = bad