Buying a house next to a council rented property?

chucknorris

HapPea wrote: »

They may be well built, spacious etc. But snobbery is rife in Britain today and so this may reduce the number of potential purchasers when you come to sell.

This isn't the first "Should I buy an old council house" thread I've seen on here.

If you're looking for a home for a short period of time it might be worth thinking about potential problems when you come to sell. But if it's for the long term then buy the house YOU like irrespective of what other people think.

Back in the 90's I applied for a mortgage to buy an ex council flat, the mortgage broker rang me back and said the lender thinks you are lying! The situation was I that owned quite a nice house in clapham which i rented out (worth about 750k at today's prices) and I lived in and also owned a few other ex council flats. He said they (mortgage express) said we don't believe he owns this house in Clapham but wants to live in an ex council flat, we think he is going to rent it out. When I explained that the ex council flat was in a very good block and that I currently lived in the same block and had done for 6 years he said, I believe you but they don't. So I ended up buying through Birmingham Midshires and lived in that flat for 5 years.

Norman_Castle

ETA: As an aside, my daughter's bf bought a riverside apartment for cash and his neighbours on either side were 'ladies of the night'!

Thats handy. Saves getting the car out

Alexei

dodger1 wrote: »

These are just facts and nothing else. I used to have a milk round in Winchester which was pretty much split between a private estate and a council estate. There were lovely people on each estate, there were unpleasant and uncaring people on each estate.

However, without doubt per capita the council estate had the higher percentage of the second group. This isn't bigotry or snobishness just plain facts, I got on very well with the nice people on both estates.

Name and shame please dodger1 - I'm about to buy in Winchester and want to know whether I'm in the offending area :rotfl:

dodger1

Alexei wrote: »

Name and shame please dodger1 - I'm about to buy in Winchester and want to know whether I'm in the offending area :rotfl:

Stanmore area and Battery hill were the coucil parts of the round, Kilham Lane, Woodfield Drive, Kerrfield and Sleepers Hill the private side. As I said though, good and bad on both sides.

phoebe1989seb

Jamman960 wrote: »

I'm just trying to figure out any potential reasons for the current owners to be moving out having only been there since late 2007, they've done it up to a very high standard which is something I probably wouldn't do if there was even a slim chance we weren't staying for long.

We bought our last house in November 2007, spent in excess of £40k restoring it to its former glory (a tudor house that had been allowed to go to rack and ruin by a succession of previous owners) and had every intention of staying there for many years. Unfortunately we weren't happy with the area we had chosen - nothing to do with specific neighbours (who for what it's worth were all owner-occupiers in what could easily be described as bungalow-ville!) but with the area as a whole which was not what we had expected.

This coupled with ageing parents requiring us to live closer caused us to put the house up for sale last March.......

Not everyone sells up after a *short* period of time because their neighbours are problematic - it could be because of any one of a number of reasons, but good luck whatever you decide to do......

ed110220

HapPea wrote: »

They may be well built, spacious etc. But snobbery is rife in Britain today and so this may reduce the number of potential purchasers when you come to sell.

This isn't the first "Should I buy an old council house" thread I've seen on here.

If you're looking for a home for a short period of time it might be worth thinking about potential problems when you come to sell. But if it's for the long term then buy the house YOU like irrespective of what other people think.

This doesn't make much sense, as a relatively cheap house to buy will fetch a relatively cheap price when sold. You could argue with similar [il]logic that one shouldn't buy a small house as you won't be able to sell it for as much as a large house, or you shouldn't buy a flat because it won't fetch as much as a house.

ed110220

For the record I live in an ex-local authority house too. The previous owners lived here since it was built in 1949 and bought it in 1981.

My neighbours on both sides are lovely, on the one side the house is owner occupied and on the other is rented from the housing association.

You should also consider that neglect of the neighbouring house may not be due to the occupant(s) being lazy or troublesome, it may be an old person who is no longer able to take care of the garden or someone who is not physically capable etc.

vectra90

We've just moved into an really nice house (renting before we buy it) and both sides are council tennants and purely because of them i'm not going to buy this house anymore. It's a real shame because it's our dream home...

HapPea

ed110220 wrote: »

This doesn't make much sense, as a relatively cheap house to buy will fetch a relatively cheap price when sold. You could argue with similar [il]logic that one shouldn't buy a small house as you won't be able to sell it for as much as a large house, or you shouldn't buy a flat because it won't fetch as much as a house.

I think you misunderstood my point. I am not talking about the price of the house I am talking about limiting the number of prospective buyers.

The same logic can be applied to a number of the questions that get raised on here: (numbers made up to illustrate the point)

No bath- 40% would not even view
Council house -50% would not view
Large house no garden
Next to nuclear power station etc etc

The point is if you want to live in the house for a short time it might be worth thinking about the market of potential buyers.

If it is for the long term then 10+ years of being in a house you love is more important

Callie22

melysion wrote: »

Good grief! Do people really believe this? Why on earth should it matter whether your neighbours are owners or renters?

To be fair, I agree it can be a problem to buy next door to a rental - and I'm a tenant. I'm a great neighbour, I keep the house and garden tidy, I don't have parties etc etc, but I don't have any control over how my landlord chooses to look after his property. Or not, as the case may be. I've moved out of a number of rentals because the LL hasn't maintained the house and it's caused issues with the neighbours - as a tenant, it's a horrible situation to be in when every time you go 'home' your neighbour starts ranting at you over things you just can't control.

I accept that you can't control who you live next to, and there are lots of homeowners who don't maintain their houses, but if I'm ever in a position to buy then I probably would try to find out if the houses next door are lived in by the owners or rented out. I just think that on balance, you are more likely to live next door to a well-maintained house if the owners live there.