Did my ears deceive me?

lynzpower

michaels wrote:

I hev an ex la flat in a small block. The privately owned (either owner occupied or tennanted) flats all have well tended gardens and clean font yards. The two remaining council properties have old broken appliances out front and bck yards full of abandonded water features, no grass cos the dogs have torn it all up and various motorbike parts.

I agree this is not always the case but I can also see that if you bought a property and the value was reduced by the behaviour of the neighbours (whatever their background) you would be upset.

But isnt that a question of if/when you have a neighbour with a burnt out fridge in their garden, deal with it then if its a big deal to , not just lumping everyone together as recieving benefits automatically being scum neighbours, and howling at the "how dare they"

Ops comments are previous to say the least, they havnet even moved in yet!

livinginhope

Wht buy a new build? all the cracks and settlement problems,noise from the continued building all round,not being able to park because the roads are narrower to stop parking and garages too small,oh the joy,not.
We lived in a new build (rented) when our house burnt down last year,the snobby attitude of the neighbours I would say was as bad as yours,but we were the smug ones knowing that our own house was twice the size and value as theirs and in a much more elite area,they didn't know this,and as my hubby works shifts they assumed we didn't work.Just shows how wrong you can be and far too judgmental.
By the way according to our developers the government state the percentage on these estates for social housing is 30% not 10%.The developers don't like showing the plans where the social housing is.
If you really want to live in an environment of keeping up with the Jones',buy a newbuild,you will get your wish.

LH79_2

I have to say I can see OP's point. Bearing in mind the huge financial committment of house buying you are bound to be anxious about anything which may, possibly, sometime in the future when you sell, lose you money. Believe me I have lost money on a house before and its a fairly soul destroying experience as you begin to wonder what you are working for.

I completely understand why you would want to get full facts before committing to buy. As suggested, talk to the developer, and perhaps they could show you existing developments which have a mix of housing. You could then go and have a look at those estates and it may put your mind at ease.

Good Luck!;)

chugalug

The fact that you might have to share your space with council chavs who should really be on the edge of town estates is thanks to the govt.

They are propping up the housing market by initiatives such as shared ownership and keyworker housing which lets them avoid the basic fault with the system - its market driven which will always push people to greed. Some people will never be able to afford to own their own housing and some don't want to. Why shouldnt these people mix with the rest of you. Are you better in some way because you can afford your own house??

I am one of those tenants that live in mixed tenure properties. Thankfully I have normal people living around and we don't have much trouble from the homeowners. Some homeowners have appalling behaviour but you can't evict them cos they own their property. Tenants can be evicted if they dont 'behave'. Which would you be?

Sometimes I can't believe we live in the 21st century

sportbeth

Hmmmm - time to roll up my snobby sleeves and dive into the debate.

Where I live we are being asked for £310k for a newbuild 3 bedroom semi. I am blowed if I am going to hand over that much money and have Vicky Pollard move in next to me.

Where I live you can buy a 4 bed detatched house in the 1970's council estate in the next village for £200k. But you will wait a decade to sell it again and not only do your neighbours have broken caravan's in the drive but you wouldn't want your granny to have to walk down the street after dark.

The area where I live has well kept houses with no graffiti, considerate neighbours with well kept houses and gardens and it's so quiet you can hear a pin drop. It is a statistical fact that if the neighbours from hell move in next to me that they will reduce the value of my property. And unfortunately some people will never improve their standards regardless of which area you put them in.

My snobbery and hard earned cash give me the right to stay in a nice area. And if you read the small print on affordable housing it's all very complicated. The Housing Association has the right to offer Social Housing, that's to people who are either mentally unstable or can't look after themselves. I',m sure you want that wandering past your lounge window every day when you're paying £2k a month on mortgage and he's paying nothing.

The trend is for people to buy the Affordable housing and then rent it out. Who to? You won't know until they get there!

I think it's law on developments over 49 houses that 25% has to go to Affordable housing. My advice if you've set your heart on a new build is to find a mature development or go for a small builder with little to develop then you can get around it.

POORBUTHONEST

Hey! Excellent replies!! Nothing like stirring up a Hornets nest..... to be honest I don't care who my neighbours are, as long as they don't cause me any grief. What I don't want is gangs of 'yoofs' joy riding and being obnoxious outside my front door. Nor do I wish to be surrounded by curtain - twitching Hyacynth Buckets (sorry, thats Bouquets).
The way the 'affordable' housing was explained to me was not it was 'keyworker' or such like; just that some homes just HAVE to be let out by the council, something I had never heard of before.

Livinginhope: I have no wish to 'keep up with the Joneses' - but after working my guts ot for the last 30 years, I would like to live in a 'nice' neighbourhood; not as my parents had to - on a council estate with old fridges and prams in the front garden of the house next door, and a plenitude of disaffected louts around the area.

Chugalug - you did make me smile -'don't have much trouble with the homeowners'................laugh!!

To some of the others- who said anything about people 'on benefits?', you seem to be putting your own words into my mouth!

POORBUTHONEST

Sportbeth, Exactly! The 2nd line of your post gets to the nub of the matter quite succinctly...............PBH.

poopscoop

I heard they have to interview people before they can live on them developments. Also, if they misbehave they turf them out.

If you have a problem, just don't move there.

sportbeth

POORBUTHONEST wrote:

Sportbeth, Exactly! The 2nd line of your post gets to the nub of the matter quite succinctly...............PBH.

Thank god someone agrees with me at last. I agree that at the moment, it all sounds very nice. Vetting buyers, making sure they're the right types of people etc. I would be more than happy to live next to a postie on one side with his wife and kids and a copper with his dog on the other side.

But the worry about all the developments that I have looked at is that all the nice big expensive houses are at the front of the development. All the affordable housing is on the furthest end from the road.

In ten years time when the brand new houses aren't so new and original tenants have gone, will it descend into a ghetto? Will full price owners start selling up at the first snifter of the equity they've earned and a first whiff of trouble?

Will the estate then only be floggable to the Housing Association and leave a few stragglers behind with their full price house and negative equity? Lets face it, there are no new council estates being built now as a matter of policy and the rare few that would happily live in their own dumps have to live somewhere. Having a neighbour with a plum in their mouth and waving a silver spoon isn't going to affect the behavior of a loudmouth gobby slob in the slightest

JenIttels

I rent in a house on a very nice new build estate. 2 bed houses ask for about £200k and there are definately a few > £1,000,000 houses about.

It's a lovely estate and is choca with well off people with BMWs (i realise that's a generalisation btw). I don't know if there are many key worker or similar properties about but there're no crumbling caravans or burnt out cars!

We have, probably, the most uncared for houses in the area - mostly because we're four 'young professionals (we all have degrees and earn above average wages)' none of whom really care about the house (it took me 6months to get round to sorting a dodgy overflow that was dripping down the side of the house). We haven't mowed our lawn since a bbq last summer. My housemate has what is, almost, a recording studio in his room including a loud drum set which he spends a lot of time on. I quite regularly spend a few hours with my car jacked up in our communal car park as i don't like to pay garages over the odds to service my car. We tend to leave our dustbins on the pavement as we're too lazy to take them out of our garden every week.

Maybe you ought to ask about any buy to let properties on the estate before you put your money down