Does living near council flats devalue your property?

BigAunty

I know that people often shout 'snob' at those who display anxiety about living in close proximity with social housing tenants.

I do believe tenure shouldn't automatically mean one type is a better neighbour than the other but I do believe there is more risk of anti-social behaviour with social housing tenants because the majority of new social housing tenants tend to belong to needy social groups - lone parents, newly released prisoners, ex homeless, victims of domestic abuse and family breakdown and so forth. Statistically, those belonging to social housing tenure are the least likeliest to be in employment.

I grew up in social housing across the 70s and 80s but it was in a time where the majority of occupants were 2 parent households in full time employment so I have a generally positive recollection of council accommodation.

However, due to social changes and the change from the waiting list principle to needs based allocation, the mix is now very different and the right to buy has tended to cherry pick the best ones.

As an adult I secured a social housing tenancy in a low rise block and I was surrounded by alcoholics, junkies, the mentally ill and what could politely be described as the 'dispossessed'. I found the immediate living environment, the communal areas, very grubby and had a lot of problems with anti social neighbours. I could have been unlucky in my allocation - it tended to be solo tenants or couples, not family accommodation.

One poor tenant is enough to cause a huge impact on many people and the security of tenure that comes with social housing means that neighbours can be forced to endure them for their lifetime.

My adult social housing tenancy has coloured my view of social housing. For instance, there is a new estate of award winning eco homes in the area but around 60% are socially rented while the remaining 40% are for sale.

I'm not even sure I have the appetite to view a property there. I know I should be impressed with the investment and the necessary step to mix tenures rather than create ghettos of deprivation. However, knowing the majority of tenants are going to be allocated properties near me based on their neediness rather than suitability as tenants, I think that estate has the potential to go downhill fast - you can't design an estate to thrive, however fantastic the infrastructure and architecture - if you are going to grant lifetime tenancies to the majority of the people there who are much more likely to be vulnerable, needy and unemployed.

Old_Git

dosent the queen live in a big council house

t0rt0ise

I think Big Aunty is right that the truth is that there is more chance of social tenants being bad neighbours. It pains me to agree with the thesis as I am myself a social tenant, being as I am a tenant of a Housing Association house. But I lived in a lovely house in a cul de sac in Canterbury where one neighbour would shout at her children "come in now, you little !!!!!!s" and another neighbour would regularly have all night parties. Not the nicest of people. We aren't all like that but the chances of meeting people like that are greater in social housing than in private dwellings.

Now I live in a London street of Housing Association houses, everyone is fine. The houses are thick-walled Georgian houses and we don't hear the neighbours through the walls. So I think that shows that it depends on the sort of housing and street that you are looking at.

I also wouldn't really think of buying in a street where most houses are privately rented either, especially if in a student town. In my experience students make by far the worst neighbours.

DRP

Does living near council flats devalue your property?

I'd have said it will only be devalued in the sense that buying oop north or on a flood plain devalues your property.

ie. the value is the value - unless something changes *after* you buy or you overpaid in the first place, then no it doesn't really devalue.

BigAunty

DRP wrote: »

Does living near council flats devalue your property?

I'd have said it will only be devalued in the sense that buying oop north or on a flood plain devalues your property.

ie. the value is the value - unless something changes *after* you buy or you overpaid in the first place, then no it doesn't really devalue.

OK, shiny new housing award winning Eco estate built in a deprived part of a deprived city with the majority of tenants qualifying for the properties because they are needy and vulnerable.

What possibly could go wrong for the minority, the 40% who actually buy properties there (and their fellow sober, working tenants and neighbour), so have made a tangible investment rather than simply being gifted a property because they are mentally ill, fleeing a violent relationship, homeless due to release from prison, successful Asylum applicant who has no employment skills, experience or strong english language ability, and so forth?

One theory about why Tower Blocks didn't work is because the architecture didn't allow for community spirit to flourish and they were jerry built.

Critics point to issues around how traditional neighbourhoods were broken up and couldn't be replicated in them, that they were prone to damp, asbestos and poorly insulated.

Another is that they simply went downhill, not because they were slum properties per se, but because there was a change in how social housing was allocated after they were built, so became places where slum tenants were given tenancies and were concentrated in them, the type of tenant changed and this made the environment decline due to their criminality. They became unpopular because of the type of tenant there and thus became harder to let, etc.

Critics point to how dense housing in Europe is often much more successful, safer and popular. Also, how certain Tower Blocks that don't have concentrated deprived communities, like the Barbican and Trellick Tower, don't have the type of issues that are associated with that type of build so it's really about inhabitants and management of the buildings, rather than a problem intrinsic to the design.