nice house but council housing nearby . .

westy_1981

hi all

we have been to view a nice house this morning, it has everything we want; including a large garden. There is also scope for development and adding value to the property. However, we had a walk around the area after the viewing and saw that the street behind and also the next close on appear to be council housing. Few questions;

is it a risk to buy the property?

how do we find out if it is council / social housing (without going up to the door, knocking and asking) ?

i know this thread may seem a bit snobbish, but we're looking at spending up to 200k and the last thing we want is somewhere that has less than desireables around or a place my wife is afraid of taking our baby out in . . . .

thanks in advance

vuvuzela

Havew you visited the area at other times, eg weekday/saturday evenings to see if there are people hanging around etc ?

PPPingu

By checking in on the location at different times of the week (including evenings & weekends) you would get a pretty good feel for the environment, if the neighbourhood seems nice then great.
If on the other hand it's full of ASBO candidates, covered in litter, graffitti and broken bottles, then not so nice.

I wouldn't put to much emphasis on the social housing side of things - you can have great/terrible neighbours of any "class"!

CloudCuckooLand

Check recent sold prices to see if you can spot any differential on similar sized properties, www.houseprices.co.uk

Walk round on a Friday/Saturday night, and after the schools kick out during the week ?

Use the new police crime map, http://www.police.uk/ see what nuisance/asbo crimes are reported.

I've noticed its quite common for the biggest plots and best position at the edges of suburbs/villages, tend to go to council 40s-60s builds, which - being a definite snob! - is a waste, really.

Therefore you may need to be close to such properties to get something with room for development, insteads of a modern rabbit hutch squeezed in...

LisaB1970

westy_1981 wrote: »

hi all


i know this thread may seem a bit snobbish,

Yes, yes it does.....

westy_1981 wrote: »

but we're looking at spending up to 200k and the last thing we want is somewhere that has less than desireables around or a place my wife is afraid of taking our baby out in . . . .

I live in a Council house and have done for the past 8 years. I'm now in a position where I can (and am) buy my own home, however I have a well paid professional job which i work hard at, a new car and am a law abiding citizen....as are plenty of my neighbours. Do not assume just because its council housing its full of "undesirables" that want to steal your baby......

Knock on doors.....try one or 2 on the same street.....that will give you a feel for the area.....

smcqis

Is this serious? Its up the road and not directly beside. As others say see what its like, it wont matter if its actually social housing

ladymarmalade1970

Very good points here and i don't think you are a snob. I have lived on a "council" road and believe me it wasn't very nice. 85 or maybe even 95% of the residents were lovely but you will always get some bad ones.
Do what everyone else has suggested and go and look at it at different times and maybe knock on the peoples doors and say you are thinking of buying there.
I would also suggest driving down there in the school holidays as when i lived on this particular road in the holidays it was always filled up with children playing. Usually the kids belonged to the 5% of people that weren't nice and would chuck their kids out the door at 9 am in the morning to get them out of their hair. You will find the not nice ones have LOADS of kids. And before anyone starts slating me i am not saying kids that come from big families are not nice it just seemed that way from my experience of living in housing association accommodation.

hcb42

There are council houses in most towns and villages, the real issue is what the neighbourhood is actually like. Some are ok, others you probably wouldn't live within 5 miles of..!

climbgirl

I rented a place once that was about 150 metres away from a council estate that had a terrible reputation. I never had any trouble though, never felt unsafe or saw anything out of the ordinary. I've also had the reverse - moved into what looked like a nice neighbourhood and it was an awful place to live. Lots of noise, crime etc. Moved out as soon as we could.

You need to spend time in the area to find out - at all times of day and night. Ask around, particularly in places like local pubs, you'll find out a lot that way. Also local cab drivers tend to know the bad areas so maybe take a cab from the area and chat to the driver.

LEJC

Sadly its not a case of worrying if its ok to buy near a council estate...even the most expensive non council properties can have "undesirable occupants"...

silvercar

how do we find out if it is council / social housing (without going up to the door, knocking and asking) ?

The front doors are the usual sign; the first thing people change when they buy their own home.

Also look on house price websites to see if many have sold. If nothing is listed that usually means they are all still renting.

Personally I'd be more worried about the immediate neighbours than the next street.