Affordable Housing Question

katy123

Hi

I've seen a new house but after studying the site plan I noticed the house is next to a lot of Affordable Housing. What exactly does this mean? My partner seems to think they are flats sold cheaply to the council to house council tenants? Can anyone help?

[Deleted User]

Try googling 'affordable housing'.

An older but hopefully appropriate explanation is https://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2014/feb/03/affordable-housing-meaning-rent-social-housing

As far as I understand it, they are normally run by a housing association and rented at 80% of the market rate in the area. This is normally much higher than social housing rents (council) and higher than LHA so you shouldn't find any unemployed people able to afford them. It will be mostly low income working tenants.

I shall wait for the usual list of replies advising the OP not to touch the property she is looking at because all such people are without morals and will affect the area badly. Not my view but there you go.

BorisThomson

deannatrois wrote: »

Try googling 'affordable housing'.

An older but hopefully appropriate explanation is https://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2014/feb/03/affordable-housing-meaning-rent-social-housing

As far as I understand it, they are normally run by a housing association and rented at 80% of the market rate in the area. This is normally much higher than social housing rents (council) and higher than LHA so you shouldn't find any unemployed people able to afford them. It will be mostly low income working tenants.

I shall wait for the usual list of replies advising the OP not to touch the property she is looking at because all such people are without morals and will affect the area badly. Not my view but there you go.

Social housing tenants would claim old style housing benefit, not LHA. An unemployed person would be eligible for benefits to cover the full rent minus any bedroom tax deduction.

Katy, affordable housing can mean many things - shared ownership, reduced rent and/ or low rent. You'd need to ask the housing association for more detail.

katy123

deannatrois wrote: »

Try googling 'affordable housing'.

An older but hopefully appropriate explanation is https://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2014/feb/03/affordable-housing-meaning-rent-social-housing

As far as I understand it, they are normally run by a housing association and rented at 80% of the market rate in the area. This is normally much higher than social housing rents (council) and higher than LHA so you shouldn't find any unemployed people able to afford them. It will be mostly low income working tenants.

I shall wait for the usual list of replies advising the OP not to touch the property she is looking at because all such people are without morals and will affect the area badly. Not my view but there you go.

That's the kind of insight you can't get from google.

bubblerawk

the plot i have reserved backs onto a garden of affordable housing so i ask the developer what this means, so this may not be totally correct but its a property which is lower in value than the rest on the development but the house must be purchase through ways of a mortgage and they must have 10% deposit. They must be in full time employment and it cannot be rented it, it is not owned by the council.

again this is the information the developer gave me so i cannot say for sure if this is correct

goodwithsaving

Living next to affordable housing would make me think twice but I don't think they can be rented out by the owners if part of SO scheme (correct me if wrong, someone). You may buy a nice house somewhere with solely 'non-affordable' housing, move in and find that in the private house next door, you have the tenants from hell. I viewed ex-council and new build estates, and (genuinely surprised myself), I went for the ex-council simply because in the new build estate there were children climbing the fences etc and in the ex-council, neighbours are pleasant and it's very quiet. I learned not to rule out places I previously would have.

It depends on the area. For example, affordable housing in Esher would be very different to affordable housing in Luton (sorry Luton).

If it's really bugging you then perhaps you'd be better buying somewhere already established where you can meet neighbours before you move.