New Build Developments - "Affordable Housing" - Offputting?

kimbyanne

Would you be put off buying a house on a new development if it was near "affordable housing"?

Having recently purchased a Shared Ownership house, that is classed on the plans as "Affordable Housing", I am intrigued.

Mallotum_X

Being honest, yes I would be put off.

I know this is basically an unfair prejudice but if there were two otherwise equal properties one being close to social housing and the other not I would pick the other. I accept I dont really have any reasonable explanation of this and you get all sorts of people in all sorts of housing.

Leo2020

I believe that for all developments over a certain size have to include a certain percentage of social housing, this may include affordable homes as well.

If someone wants to buy a new build then it is a case of putting up with a certain number of affordable homes/social housing whether they like it or not. I suppose it could be an issue with resale - someone people are put of by social housing, like some people won't buy an ex-council house.

But as you can't tell which are private rented/affordable/social rented then does it matter??

The way I see it you can buy a house on a private estate like I did and get neighbours who thought having parties until two in the morning with music blaring out was OK. Or you can do what I did and buy an ex-council house and so far no parties until 2 in the morning (the neighbours don't seem the type so hopefully it will be OK). One neighbour did have a hallowen party with music but at a sensible volume and it stopped long before 2 a.m.

pinkteapot

Leo2020 wrote: »

But as you can't tell which are private rented/affordable/social rented then does it matter??

On one estate near me, the builder didn't finish the affordable and social housing to the same standard. Eg the garages didn't have doors and the walls weren't rendered in the same way. The houses look shabbier and it's pretty obvious which ones they are.

Cuilean

Mallotum_X wrote: »

Being honest, yes I would be put off.

I know this is basically an unfair prejudice but if there were two otherwise equal properties one being close to social housing and the other not I would pick the other. I accept I dont really have any reasonable explanation of this and you get all sorts of people in all sorts of housing.

I'll provide an example. Our council gave permission for an estate of large, expensive houses, on the proviso that social housing was put at the front of the estate. Then they moved a few "well known" tenants in from all over the county. It certainly livened up the local newspaper, although the wealthy residents in the big houses weren't laughing!

Leo2020

pinkteapot wrote: »

On one estate near me, the builder didn't finish the affordable and social housing to the same standard. Eg the garages didn't have doors and the walls weren't rendered in the same way. The houses look shabbier and it's pretty obvious which ones they are.

Ok, well you can tell sometimes then! But the new estates near me you can't - they all look the same.

Pidge_jen

The developments round here have managed to dodge out of the quota of affordable housing, as apparently building a nursing home/residential home counts instead. Consequently, there's now a glut of new nursing homes popping up round here. The developers were very proud of themselves when we asked where the affordable housing was going to be, and they told us they had managed to get out of it. I guess they've found a way to maximise more profits as a nursing home doesn't have the same devaluing effect as affordable housing (which by the way, is still massively unaffordable for anyone on an average wage in this area). Sneaky.
We didn't bother buying a new house round here, not because of the pricing, or affordable housing (or lack of), but cos the developments were so crammed in and overlooked that it was difficult to manoeuvre a small hatchback car down streets that were already overcrowded due to lack of parking, when only half of the street was occupied. Affordable housing wouldn't have put me off. Bad neighbours are everywhere.

sinizterguy

Yes. But new builds themselves are offputting.

CLAPTON

Pidge_jen wrote: »

The developments round here have managed to dodge out of the quota of affordable housing, as apparently building a nursing home/residential home counts instead. Consequently, there's now a glut of new nursing homes popping up round here. The developers were very proud of themselves when we asked where the affordable housing was going to be, and they told us they had managed to get out of it. I guess they've found a way to maximise more profits as a nursing home doesn't have the same devaluing effect as affordable housing (which by the way, is still massively unaffordable for anyone on an average wage in this area). Sneaky.
We didn't bother buying a new house round here, not because of the pricing, or affordable housing (or lack of), but cos the developments were so crammed in and overlooked that it was difficult to manoeuvre a small hatchback car down streets that were already overcrowded due to lack of parking, when only half of the street was occupied. Affordable housing wouldn't have put me off. Bad neighbours are everywhere.

of course one of the reasons that modern housing are so crammed for the money you pay, is because YOU are paying for the affordable housing as well as your own house.

Some idiots think it comes out of builders' profits but obviously it doesn't : it comes out of buyers' pockets.

One day people will make the connection.

Vampgirl

No it doesn't put me off at all - most of the roads on our estate have a mixture of affordable rented/shared ownership/owner-occupier (its easy to spot which are the affordable housing here if you know what you're looking for). I don't think a person's income is a good judge of their character - owner-occupiers and private renters can be as anti-social as anyone else.

kimbyanne

Interesting replies.

The houses here are identical whether HA/SO or private. The only tell is HA have allocated parking and SO have private driveways. All other houses have garages.

We have been told by various tradesman who came to fix our various snags that the SO homes at least were finished to a higher standard than private, I don't know how true that is.

What bugs me is that "Affordable Housing" is not simply HA, as someone who purchased an SO I am classed as an owner occupier but as soon as people hear Affordable Housing they think the worst. However having lived in HA areas and seen first hand some of the trouble tenants cause, I can relate I guess.

Re new builds, the development we are on isn't the standard new build development. The roads are wide, the houses are spaced far apart, there is lots of "open countryside", it's nothing like a typical new build estate. I have lived on new build estates which were horrendously crammed in and swore never to live on one again.