Affordable / social housing - avoid or a does it just have a bad reputation?

artyclarty

I live in a 40s ex-council house in a cul-de-sac which had been trashed by a previous tenant before being put up for sale.

There are a a handful of owners, and of the rest, 25% private lets and 75% housing association. The housing association people are all well behaved and all have jobs (most are self employed tradesmen) it is the private letters that are the problem.

One being my neighbour directly attached and her mate three doors down. They both came in at midnight and partied till 4am, knowing well that I got up at 4am for work, had to get environmental health (as did other neighbours) and the police involved and they both ended up getting evicted, ironically not for these reasons but she got a pitbull and the landlord found out! Trashed the house and LL put it up for sale. Now I have quiet shift working owner occupiers next to me who are doing up the house as I had to when I moved in. The street now is so much quieter without these (private letting) idiots.

Just goes to say that its not always the social housing people that are the problem...

Davesnave

We hear you moneysaver12, but anecdotes are just that, and people can trot them out ad infinitum, but they are only describing part of the elephant, not the whole beast.

TBagpuss

I think it depends enourmously on the area.

I've had good and bad neighbours who were owner-occupiers, good and bad neighbours who wereSocial Housing tenants and good and bad neighbours who were private tenants.

I think it's worth looking at the area more generally. Of course areas may change, but if the general area is pleasant and well cared for then it's a good sign. If you are on or immediately adjacent to a 'sink' estate with high crime, high unemployment etc then the affordable housingwhere you are thinking of buying is likely to be less atractive and perhaps more likely to end up with difficult tenants.

One positive is that social landlords do normally have specific and fairly easily identifiable rules and processes so if things do go wrong, you do at least know who to contact and complain to.

A lot of people are prejudiced against social tenants and even about buying former council / HA properties. This means that there is often a discount in terms of the amount of house you can get for your money, and that will apply both when you buy and when you sell. Personally, I have seen that as a positive thing - My ex-council house is far more spacious, with a bigger garden, than properties in the same village and price range which have never been council owned.

I think it is the same as buying any other property. Do your research, look at the area, compare prices and amenities etc and decide based on the specific property and area you are considering, not on generalisations about a type of housing.

Newbie78

We are social housing, we moved into our shared ownership new build on a new estate in January


We are surrounded by other shared ownership properties, some rental and 3 and 4 bedroom owned properties


We are happy, our neighbours are all happy


and there are no couches on any of our front lawns

Davesnave

TBagpuss wrote: »

I think it is the same as buying any other property. Do your research, look at the area, compare prices and amenities etc and decide based on the specific property and area you are considering, not on generalisations about a type of housing.

That's it!

We can put the popcorn away now!

TBagpuss

Davesnave wrote: »

That's it!

We can put the popcorn away now!

Shame. I like popcorn!

Gers

Davesnave wrote: »

That's it!

We can put the popcorn away now!

Hold on, one more extra large soft drink first please!

How about THIS home owner?


Now the bar can close.

jonmoneybags

I would walk quickly...........


...........no second thoughts, run as fast as possible from any housing development which includes the word 'social'.

ewwwwwwwwwwwww

Nasqueron

I used to play football and cricket on the road at a mate's house, in the leafy suburbs of the posh area of the city and none of the houses were social

ripplyuk

Since I now live in social housing, these threads stick out to me, and there seems to be a lot of them. It feels like people now see me as part of a 'sub-group' of society, that they're very frightened of. It's bewildering.

OP, some areas are rough regardless of the tenure. Take a look around the area and judge for yourself. Or keep saving and buy somewhere expensive.

Where I live, it's very quiet and the houses and gardens are well kept. The kids here never play in the street. But they have back gardens so they're lucky. Not everyone does. There's never any guarantee of what sort of neighbours you'll have but private tenancies usually change hands much more often than social housing.