Living near Affordable Housing - Whats it really like?

LittleMax

Racml34 wrote: »

Can the developer not tell you which Housing Association the affordable rented properties are through? You could then ask them what type of tenure they would be looking to introduce there.

'Affordable' housing association schemes can mean many things. There is 'social affordable rent' which most people think of as council housing, there are 'affordable rent' and 'intermediate' rented tenancies for which applicants usually need to be working and pay a deposit etc but each HA has their own criteria for these. There is 'market rent' which are HA owned but rented via a letting agent usually and these are often used where they could not sell the properties. Then there is 'shared ownership or shared equity'

Having said that the majority of HA tenants are good tenants and behave responsibly. It is the minority that spoil it for others. And you can get awful neighbour wherever you live. I live in a private close and for a year had the most dreadful neighbours, rubbish all over the front garden, old abandoned cars etc and loud music and they ones their property.

As Racml says, the term 'Affordable Housing' covers shared ownership, intermediate rent, where tenants rent for a bit and then gradually buy a share so they become shared ownership in time. Also Council or Housing Association rented properties are also included. These can be a mixed bag. Generally tenants will be well vetted by the Housing Association, however, as with any property there can be bad neighbours.

As others have said I would be reluctant to buy a property off plan without seeing the type of people that the landlord moves in.

In the past I have lived on estates amongst council housing and also shared ownership. Both times though we rented privately and were not stuck with a house to sell. Buying is a different proposition.

Interestingly, only yesterday we went back to look at a development that we had considered buying on just before we found our new build in July last year. Although the property was nearly finished when we viewed and the social houses were almost completed no one had moved in. It all looked lovely. Going back yesterday and seeing the area with kids toys, cheap cars and trailers parked outside was a real eye opener. The amount of social housing really stood out. If we went to buy the same house now, we would walk away. We said in the car as we drove away, how we had made the right decision to buy elsewhere and how if we were doing it again we would not buy off plan before the social tenants had moved in.

Tainted_love

Charlieismydarling, I totally agree with you. I am astounded at some people's ignorance.

phoebe1989seb

martinsurrey wrote: »

Unfortunately affordable can be a lottery.
But I’ve also been to a development (on work) where an affordable flat was allocated to a drug dealer, and his windows overlooked the gardens of a £600k 4 bed townhouse, and the owners of that soon got annoyed by the regular parties and police raids.[/FONT][/COLOR]

Unfortunately so can the best of privately owned housing though

In the road mentioned in my previous post, we had a neighbour that bought his house a couple of years after us. He spent ££££s gutting it, reconfiguring (he owned a building company) and putting in a large indoor pool, turning a house he bought for £260k into one now valued at over a million. His kids went to the same independent school as DS and he was regularly involved in charity fundraising events.

Rumours abounded that he was a drug dealer - builders we employed knew him/his reputation and were genuinely scared of him - and he was certainly a *rough diamond*. We never had any issues with him personally and as a family they were very quiet, although he did verbally attack the guy rebuilding our conservatory after the builder drilled a hole in our wall that could be heard in his pool room

One day early in the morning there was a massive police raid at his house - we actually thought there had been a murder - but later found out it was a search for firearms as he'd been involved in a gangland shooting, but of course nothing was proved as I guess he had others to do his *dirty work* :eek:

whalster

You need to ask the developer for a plan of the social housing going on the site and get them to sign it as these things can be very fluid .you should also ask for a copy of the 106 agreement that has been signed to see what proportion of the properties have to be social housing .
As has been said above social housing provision is very different to shared ownership or low cost housing but yu can bet your life that a large site by one of the large developers will have social housing.
What you also have to remember is that its not us developers who are paying for the social housing element on the site IT'S YOU ! Divide the number of buses up on the site and a rough retail value and this is how much subsidy you are paying on their home added to your price .
If it were me and you have your heart set on a new house look for a smaller site by a smaller developer one where they have paid an off site provision ,basically where the developer pays money to the local authority so they do not have to build any social housing on the site. The money is still put on your house at the end of the day but you have,a site with all freehold houses .
Or don't go for a new build at all find a 60's or 70's house much better value generally on larger plots too.
Don't get me wrong I am a big believer in social housing both sets of my grandparents lived all their lives in council houses however that is what they should be council houses built by the council out of general taxation not from an effective tax on those who buy new homes

DannyboyMidlands

If I was to live near affordable housing I'd want to be in the affordable housing not paying £285k for the privilege.

The last house I viewed adjacent to some affordable was a nightmare. Rubbish in the gardens, curtains drawn until the Iceland van came round at 11:00, all the stereotypes...

You are taking a massive gamble.

charlieismydarling

However its a perfectly honest question and your situation is not totally relevant. People who don't work, cause trouble and are louts have to live somewhere. I am trying to mitigate my risk of living near them and I have a right to do so.

The road I live on is typical of council houses in this area. Out of twenty odd houses, about a third have been bought. Of the remainder, half are occupied by elderly/retired people and the rest are occupied by people that work.

It is a fairly new and extremely ignorant assumption that council houses are inhabited by the unemployed and unemployable. Those council tenants that are anti-social, in rent arrears and generally undesirable will not be rehoused in new builds.

then the cherry on the top will be the nagging worry that neighbours from hell will be installed right opposite and your quality of life will be in the toilet.

You know they will be the neighbour from hell do you.

I owned property for many years and the only neighbours from hell were people that owned their own houses. Council tenants can be evicted for anti social behaviour. A particularly spiteful neighbour of mine reported me for some trumped up misdemeanour and the housing officer was out the next day to investigate. Sadly for the neighbour I had a rock solid alibi to prove the allegation was malicious and unfounded.

Seldom is ignorance and the arrogance shown by repeating these myths so proliferate as it is here. Have any of you actually spent any time on a council estate? Some of you sdon't even seem to know the difference between affordable and social housing. Unbelievable.

paulineb_2

I grew up in a council house. Lived there 20 years. My mum still lives there. Very little anti social problems at all.

I also live in a council flat. Ive been here almost 20 years. The area I live in has historically been a dumping ground for anti social tenants. I ended up here because I dont have priority for council housing and I took a hard to let area.

Its not the housing that makes people problematic, its the people and the fact that some councils put a high proportion of people with anti social issues (ie when people get evicted from one area they get put to a certain other area), in the one place.

Having said that, there are two privately owned housing schemes within walking distance of me, one was built around 10 years ago, the other about 5 and there are maybe one or two rented homes within that development.

There are also Housing Association flats a 2 minute walk from me, those having been bought from the council a number of years ago.
It is pot luck, but I would also say its pot luck anywhere you choose to stay.

People can be anti social no matter whether they are in private rented accommodation or bought accommodation or any other kind of accommodation there is.

And yes, Ive worked in areas where the people who owned housing in the most upmarket area in the town were families who were notorious for dealing drugs.

And having lived in an area where some people are anti social for a long time, I personally have no idea why people choose to behave in a way that causes issues to their neighbours, but they do in certain parts.

But as I said, my mum is in a council house that shes lived in for almost 40 years and its about 2 miles from me and doesnt have the issues the area I live in has.

By the way I wouldnt judge people for having cheap cars or giving their kids cheap toys. We are in hard economic times. I dont even have a car, I dont drive.

And people do attach a label to people living in certain areas. Im educated, I have a degree and two post grads. Im not anti social and I see nothing wrong with living in a council house.You pay rent to a landlord instead of getting a mortgage, no more and no less. I was brought up to respect people and I come in at night, shut my door and get on with living, quietly.

And I absolutely agree that people deserve peace and quiet in their own home. But its a shame that a lot of people automatically see "chav" or "ned" as they are called in Scotland when the issue of council housing gets raised.

sinbad182

charlieismydarling wrote: »

I live in a council house. No one here drinks lager in their garden. I look after my house and put rubbish in the bin.

I can spell too. You can work and live in a council house.

The level of ignorance on here is astonishing.

It's all well and good you and your neighbours being good citizens and nice people to live around, but the fact is that council and HA tenants are more likely to be guilty of anti social behaviour than other people.

There's no point getting on your high horse about it, it's just a fact.

LittleMax

paulineb wrote: »

By the way I wouldnt judge people for having cheap cars or giving their kids cheap toys. We are in hard economic times. I dont even have a car, I dont drive.

I'm not judging people, however it is a strong indicator that people look at when deciding what an area is like and will have a bearing on the future value of any house opposite.

I think we need to clarify that OP asked about how it would affect the future value of his property. Like it or not if you have two otherwise identical streets, the one with affordable housing in it will be less appealing to live in.

Dan-Dan

I grew up in various council houses in a few different estates , my oldest friends still live on them , the fact remains , i would chop my own head off before buying a house on any of them