Buying ex-local authority house

francohoops

In the process of buying a house. The bank survey has come back and highlighted that the house was built by a local authority. We have spoken to council who have confirmed that a number of houses on the road were built for local authority purposes. The majority are now privately owned.

The road is very nice, and the house is a very good size. It's a 3 bedroom house.

I'm worried that we may have problems selling the house on in a few years. Should we be concerned? Do local authority houses usually sell for less? Is there a rough % difference?

What should we be looking out for in particular?

Thanks for your help
F

meercatsunited

some ex local authority houses do sell for less but then you buy it cheaper than others, it also depends on where in the country you are.
and there is no set % to calculate. have a look at what the properties on this road previously sold for and compare it to sales of a nearby rd of non ex local properties similar to the one you are buying.

Owain_Moneysaver

On the one hand ex-LA houses can have something of a 'stigma' attached to them. A lot depends on the area (immediate locality, and the region of the UK) though and whether it's now predominantly owner-occupied.

On the other hand LA houses were often well-built, with larger room sizes and on larger plots than comparable private builds, and convenient for play parks and bus routes.

GDB2222

I would be concerned with maintenance costs. Is this on an estate, with the local authority holding the freehold? is your particular house freehold?

there does tend to be a bit of a stigma with ex-local authority housing, but a lot of it was built very well, with larger rooms than modern private housing. If you are talking about a few local authority houses on a mainly private road, the stigma will gradually evaporate as more and more of the houses become privately owned. if it is on a local authority estate, the prices are likely to be permanently depressed.

bobula

Just bought an ex LA house and as owain says stigma seems to be attached some friends commented on that it looked like an ex la house - i said it was and got "oh" and surprised looks back....

For me i represented everything i wanted in a house . Decent plot , decent size rooms and it is in the country ( with only 7 other ex la houses near by)

It never even crossed my mind that being ex la was an issue - and it still isnt an issue for me

My house is built of bricks and has been up for 65 years and showing not sign of letting up .......houses round my mates 7 year old house are showing signs of subsidance by the form of big cracks in the walls - stigma or no stigma i know which id prefer my money tied up in ...

Torry_Quine

As you didn't realise yourself then it isn't obviously ex council.

What stigma? You like it so there's no reason to believe it wouldn't sell in the future. It will probably be well built and with good sized rooms.

Is this the norm that you buy a house with the thought of when you will sell it on!

Strapped

Around here, ex-local authority houses come with a covenant attached, the "Devon 3 year rule", which means they can only be sold to someone who has been living or working in Devon for at least the previous 3 years. Presumably your solicitor would've notified you if anything like that applied to the property you are interested in though.

Richard_Webster

Ex LA houses sell for less if they are on obvious Council Estates. The smaller the "estate" the less the stigma - and there's hardly any if they are just an infill of a few houses in an otherwise private road.

The differential will vary from place to place. Where I am in Eastleigh there is a much smaller differential between an ex LA 3 bed semi and a private one than in Southampton, simply because there aren't very many private 3 bed semis so if you want one you end up buying an ex-LA one - we even have some estate agents referring to one Council Estate as "Favoured Birds Roads" - the roads are all named after birds, e.g Nightingale Avenue, Sparrow Square etc.

francohoops

Thanks for your replies.

House is on a mainly private road. Have confirmed with council that houses from 188-210 are ex-council, but have since been sold off. Upwards of that there may be some owned by Housing associations (road is around 220 houses).

Problem is, I can't find a comparative price. Although houses have been sold, a lot of the ex-council were sold 5/6+ years ago.

Is there anyway, or anyone who would be able to provide an impartial valuation? We don't want to pay an inflated price. The idea of buying in this area is to look to move up the ladder in 3/4 years.

The house is definitely bigger than others we have seen, backs on to a local college playing fields, is close to a very good primary school, had a massive garden and potential to extend.

The house we are buying has been on market since Oct 2011. It was on for £345k, our accepted offer is for £330k.

I am being overly cautious as our previous flat was very close to a large council estate and we had lease issues which meant it took 3+ years to sell. Plus we had various incidents of vandalism. We don't want to risk that happening, although the 2 roads are very different.

F

poppysarah

The always private ones near us usually go for more than the ex-council. However the ex-council are bigger houses with bigger gardens.

EDIT: When I say near - some of them are even on the same street!