Would you buy on a council estate?

evenasus

It's better to buy your own home, not on a council estate, if possible.

garbaldisham

Best advice is still to take a walk or drive around the area at different times of the day or night, perhaps talk to some of the local shop-keepers, etc.

It's all very well for some to say "Lots of kids hanging around on the corner, they're no bother", but if your house is the one on the corner, and said kids are 17 year olds sat on your front wall, flinging chip papers, empties and fag-ends into your garden, and using your gates as a football goal it'll soon wear a bit thin (I've been there.) We lasted four years before moving, everso slightly beyond our reach at the time, but the quieter life makes it all worth it.

I don't want to tar all estates, or even all streets or houses within an estate with the same brush - my mate lived literally 200 yards round the corner and has never had any trouble - but do your homework.

milliebear00001

evenasus wrote: »

It's better to buy your own home, not on a council estate, if possible.

Thanks, but that option isn't open to me at the moment.

milliebear00001

Here is the house. You can see a bit of the estate in some of photos. The road shown in the view from the front bedroom is the other pair of semis in our 'quad' and the road off to the side, is the main road through the estate. Ours is the house surrounded by fir trees and is right on the perimeter of the estate.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-15948951.html

kaya

we brought our first home 5 years ago in the middle of a council estate, one with a shabby reputation, in watford, but i love my home, both of my neighbours are council tennants, and they are both cool, depends what type of person you are really rather than where the house is

Badger_Lady

In my old city, I looked at houses for sale in a local council estate. Like yours, they were a lot cheaper because of the local reputation but were on the outskirts and were very convenient for city centre facilities.

My partner was overly concerned about the reputation so we didn't buy. But in the years that followed, we saw property prices there rise far beyond anyone's expectations... because the estate was on the up, things were improving and the repuation was fading. Therefore anyone selling there now will be doing very nicely indeed

I'd say that yes, being associated with a rough area does put buyers off, but the price should comfortably reflect that.

NyimaR

milliebear00001 wrote: »

Here is the house. You can see a bit of the estate in some of photos. The road shown in the view from the front bedroom is the other pair of semis in our 'quad' and the road off to the side, is the main road through the estate. Ours is the house surrounded by fir trees and is right on the perimeter of the estate.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-15948951.html

I love the garden!
The estate doesn't look bad - reminds me of part of my nans estate which is very quiet. But, I'd make sure I'd visited in the evenings just to check!

westv

milliebear00001 wrote: »

Here is the house. You can see a bit of the estate in some of photos. The road shown in the view from the front bedroom is the other pair of semis in our 'quad' and the road off to the side, is the main road through the estate. Ours is the house surrounded by fir trees and is right on the perimeter of the estate.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-15948951.html

Uklocalarea says for the postcode:-

Quality of Life indicator: Poor
Only better than 20% of areas in UK

but I wouldn't take what it says as gospel

Nixer

It's got a nice garden, photos make rooms look smaller than they are, I'd probably knock kitchen and dining room together, but it looks all right. I've heard Glossop is lovely.
If it was round here I would definitely go and see it. However if it was round here its asking price would be about 320k.

milliebear00001

westv wrote: »

Uklocalarea says for the postcode:-

Quality of Life indicator: Poor
Only better than 20% of areas in UK

but I wouldn't take what it says as gospel

Thanks - that's a really useful site. I don't think the deprivation level is unexpected given it is a council estate/private housing area where incomes are almost always low - Upmystreet gives a similar description, but is based on a generic picture of 'areas of this type' rather than the individual postcode. Many of the criteria used to decide 'quality of life' wouldn't apply to me anyway - like income, employment, education, barriers to services etc. The crime level isn't great though, and might merit further investigation. Interestingly, my moany mum's postcode comes up 'very poor'!