lozgti

Looking for a new house.Went to look at a new development on saturday.Very nice,houses about £250k to £300k plus some 2 and 3 bed apartments.

Told by sales person 'I must warn you,some of these new houses are set aside for social housing but they will vet the people before they let them in'

Sod that! Its killing me to buy a new house and a load of people who I presume don't work get a nice free house,cheap rent and subsidised everything.I understand it happens on lots of new developments

Seems freeloaders even get a new swanky pad now

fitzscoob

This has been going on for a while, any new builds over a certain amount of properties has to allow a percentage to housing association.

Brit_in_Japan

Doesn't mean they are unemployed, just that they cannot afford to get on the housing ladder any other way. Can you think of another way to provide affordable housing to those on lower incomes? Maybe councils should be allowed to use the proceeds from council house sales to build more council houses?

lightning101

It goes hand in hand with the right to buy scheme. Remember people 10 years ago were buying ex council properties for 8-12K that are now worth 150k.

If 50% of council tennants buy their own homes, where do the council find the deficit for the next wave of young council tennants ?

Jonathan Davies

They're often set aside for local key workers like nurses etc. Maybe you should find out before assuming this housing is for people who don't work?

Wurzel

iTrader: (1)

One of my friends lives in a house like this on a new development, she is a paramedic in Bracknell but can not afford a house, so some housing assosiation owns the house and she pays them half or something in the form of rent, but I think she has a mortgage on the house, no idea how it all works. So there is a good chance that you won't be getting bumms and stiffs moving in next door to you.

fitzscoob

This is true, however that said, the two big new housing estates recently build near me are now no-go areas. I feel sorry for the people that are on them because no one in their right mind would want to buy on there now.

I am not saying that this is because of the Housing Association, but we are in a good area, and the people in the HA sites have been moved in from miles away (Hackney). I was under the impression that the HA would be set aside for local key workers - perhaps East Herts doesnt have that many?

davyboy

New developments are nuts.

Not only can you live next to a pikey's in social housing, but you only have room to park one car.

CrisPDuk

If they are set aside for housing association they'll probably be OK. If the council are going to be responsible for filling them don't go anywhere near.

It's a little known fact that most councils (except the odd one or two like Brent or Haringey - By Scum For Scum) would prefer not to own their own houses as the costs are astronomical, they would rather house people in commercially rented properties for two reasons:
1: They then no longer have the massive finiancial responsibility/burden of continual maintenance.
2: People who let property on a commercial basis are permitted to be much stricter over who they put into their properties, and what they'll tolerate when they are occupied.

lightning101

The other strange thing about new builds is how you park a medium sized car e.g. mondeo, vectra etc in their single sized garages

How does the local planning department allow something to be built thats not fit for purpose ?

The Zohan

Obviously - how else do you think they will have room for the Range Rover, Transit van and 60' long caravan if you have more than one space you selfish sod

Do you loike dags BTW?

Tiggs

my folks sold some land for a development that had housing ***. allocation - they were worried at first as the still live there but turned out it was cops, nurses, etc, etc - no issues at all and prob quite a safe place to live now!

Scooby Snacks 23

My sister is in the same situation - she works for a charity working with disabled kids and owns (va mortgage) 40% of her flat whilst a trust owns the other 60% which she rents from them. She has the opportunity to buy clumps of 5% at a time I understand.

Petem95

Social housing does take the pis$ - the government sell council houses to tennants (work shy scrubbers/immigrants in most cases) for significantly less than their true value - they sell instantly and make thousands

Then as the government has flogged council houses for a quick buck, they have to buy more expensive housing in future for the work shy

Mate of mine has recently bought a fairly nice house (estate position, but still ok) - but locally theirs some "social housing" tennants been moved in who dont even speak English and park their old bangers all over the street

NWMark

Thats just incorrect, you cant sell instantly and make thousands because if you did you would have to pay back all the discount you just got from the council.

Mark

Petem95

Well I dont know the in's and out's, but I know they get the chance to buy at well below market value, which seems wrong to me.

speedking

Supplying cheap, sorry, affordable housing for 'key' workers is just distorting the market and keeping house prices higher generally. If key workers couldn't afford to live in an area then the level of services would go down devaluing the general housing stock, and a balance would be reached.

Its a scam thought up by wealthy Londoners to ensure that they don't have to move to the country

As I've said before; what makes a key worker? Could a nurse do her job without the equipment that was manufactured by someone, designed by someone else, delivered on a van, on a road that was built by navvies, etc. Without all these key links the nurse cannot function, yet all these other essential workers don't get assisted housing

pslewis

A friend bought a house on a new development with social housing as a % of the build ........... you only need one family to be scum and their kids and friends make the whole estate a horrible place to live!

These families in the summer have drunken bar-b-ques every weekend, their friends are not the 'type' you would want 'partying up' near you, their kids don't attend school as they have been excluded and jump over the garden fences and run riot while you are at work ...............

There are some 4-Bed, £350,000 houses on this development - imagine living with that and paying £1000's each month for the priveledge!!!

Pete

Tiggs

"Could a nurse do her job without the equipment that was manufactured by someone"

if i get my leg cut off i'll choose a good nurse with no equpiment over a navvie with all his tool!

Tiggs

thats the same anywhere, my last house the worse neighbours in the street had all the money! M3, X5, TVR on the drive - scum though. In fact- they were the main reason we moved.

new house and the nicest car in the close is my Ford Galaxy!.....best neighbours in the world though

brumdaisy

Christ some people dont half like to sound off without getting their facts straight

People who buy housing association properties do not get them at a discount, they simple buy a part share in the property (say 25, 50 ,75%) and the housing association buys the rest. The purchaser then pays rent on the bit the housing association owns.

People who exercise their 'right to buy' are not generally 'work shy'. How do you think they get the mortage to buy the house

Of course you have the odd family who ruin it for everyone but its not unique to social housing and its not necessarily related to a families financial status.

Anyone here fancy living nextdoor to the Osbournes?

speedking

Tiggs, you're evading the point. How would you get to the nurse without an ambulance and a road etc., where would you like to recover from your life saving operation?, in a bed, in a building? Why can't all these essential tradesmen also get subsidised accommodation? I just don't get why if nurses are so key they are not paid more, rather than having subsidised houses.

brumdaisy

too right 'specially as the NHS is having its best year ever

Dick Pee

Who'd want a PS Lewis type living nearby? Not me for one!!

Social misfit housing more like.

Mice_Elf

Because, according to a developer where we were going to buy a house, the garages are seen as storage areas these days, rather than somewhere to store your car.

Better developments do have room for more cars. The house that we are now purchasing (in a different area and a different builder to the one above) has a double garage which can easily house our 2 cars and still allow us to open the doors when parked. (Cars are a 300zx and an Evo, so not small cars.)

lightning101

Thats some nice reverse psychology

So they have been building the single garages that size for the last 20 years and its because we only want storage areas ?

I think they might find they have become storage areas, 'because' we can't fit our cars in them

Karl 227

Everything over there is built for dwarfs, I have scuffed elbows from brushing my teeth when I was there last week FFS

Wurzel

iTrader: (1)

My last house in Lower Earley I could just about get my escort in the garage, had a hard time getting in and out of the car though and the escort is not a big car.

lightning101

P.S. my garage is detached, large enough for a car, and hidden behind my house. I use it as a storage area

Dick Pee

I had a similar problem with my 5 car garage. I couldn't fit 6 cars in so I decided to use it to store water in, instead. Oh, and I called it a swimming pool too.