Advise on Colchester

contact.me

Hello

Need some advise on house purchase. For over 8 years, i am trying to get on to the ladder. Due to a variety of reasons, i cant get up and move on until now. History anyways.

Now i have started looking around Colchester. We liked a property that came up in the Highwoods / Greenstead area (i believe it is called as parsons heath area).

Need some help and advise and clarity -

1.  Are these 2 areas (Highwoods / Greenstead) safe for children to grow up ?

2.  It appears there are more council houses in and around. Is it ok to purchase and  move into a place with children (aged 4 & 8) where there are more council houses ?

3.  We are asians. Will we experience rascism in colchester ?

4.  Any advise on which areas to look out for properties and which areas to avoid ?

Please let me know.

Thanks in advance

copycop

Hello,

I lived in Colchester about 8 years ago, specifically Greenstead for about 2 years on Forest Road. At the time it was perceived as a rough part of Colchester. As you say there's a lot of council houses, which might bother some people others might not care. In the 2 years I lived there, I didn't have any issues and never felt unsafe even late at night.

A lot of the students who are living off-campus were living in Greenstead as it's quite close to the university. This might have changed now with online classes etc. but as we're getting back to some form of normality, so things might revert back. There's a chance that for a large part of the year your neighbors might be partying students .

At the time ( 8 years ago)  for me Colchester was a diverse place, I'm an EU national with an accent and have never had any problems or felt unwelcome etc. The university there has or used to have a very large number of international students, so I think people are used to having neighbors from different ethnicities and nationalities. 

I hope this helps.

Tiglet2

My son went to Colchester University and lived on the Greenstead Estate for 2 years as a student let.  As copycop says above, there are a significant amount of houses let to university students.  There may have been a few parties though I don't think my son ever felt unsafe there.  However, looking after the house and doing household chores was not much of a priority! 

The Greenstead Estate is often mentioned as a less desirable area of Colchester, but I guess it very much depends on your budget and how close you need to be to amenities.  People often mention Wivenhoe as a pleasant place to live, but this is a little further out and not so convenient for the A12 or Colchester town centre.  There is a station though.

Colchester seems to be very diverse.  There are many international students living in the town so I don't think this would be a problem for you.

pinkteapot

Lived in Colchester for eight years, only moved away three years ago. Highwoods and Greenstead are COMPLETELY different. Are you sure you mean Highwoods?

Highwoods is one of the town's expensive areas, perceived as desirable, has very good schools (both primary and secondary), big leafy country park, houses tend to sell very quickly. It's the area between Ipswich Road and the country park. 

Greenstead is, well, the opposite. Has a bad reputation though probably worse than it really deserves, as with most areas like this. Greenstead is near the uni so there's a lot of student houses there. It has a higher proportion of council housing than other areas. It's perceived as rough but I've got friends who live there and feel safe enough. 

Parson's Heath is close to Greenstead but I never really heard anything about it so can't advise on that area. 

contact.me

Dear all, Thank you everyone for your responses. Really helpful.

Pinkteapot, You are probably right. You have lived there, so you will know much more than i do. I will check about Highwoods area again.

ComicGeek

Personally I think north Colchester is better, but depends on where you need to travel to for work etc. 

You could look from Highwoods around to Myland and Chesterwell to the north, good transport links to the A12.

Nothing much left in Colchester town centre now though, we tend to go to Ipswich or Bury St Edmunds for shops now.