Ex council houses
5/7/08 00:29
5/7/08 00:11
would love to buy an ex local authority property bcos of the room dimensions and the fact that its an established estate in most cases. however in edinburgh most 3 bed semi detatched ex council properties cost more than what we paid for our 3 bedroom semi detatched new build property ........and that was 6 years ago !!!!!!!
5/7/08 00:05
I live in a council property - a row of eight - in the middle of the countryside and of those about half are privately owned, including one of my neighbours. Around here there isn't a council estate mentality so I think people are happy to buy.
4/7/08 22:07
Our house is an ex-council. When we bought it, we completely gutted it inside (down to the bare brick) because it wasn't great, and then put it back together again. It's only a 'small' house (living room,kitchen and entrance downstairs and two bedrooms and bathroom upstairs), but I agree with what someone else said about the usual features of a counil house - our downstairs rooms and bathroom are fairly spacious and we have two big double bedrooms, plus a huuge attic space which we are converting.
Scarlett - I know what you mean about council houses that look typically council - you can tell them a mile off. It's surprising what small differences can do though. We painted the outside of our house cream and removed the 'typical council' flat porch roof thing over the door, and put new windows and doors in. Just looking at our house, you wouldn't know it was council, but other houses 'give it away' so to speak.
4/7/08 22:06
tbh most of those estates tend to be almost entirely privatley owned
4/7/08 22:04
Yeah I think I've got to talk myself out of that but I got a lot of stick growing up from 'posher' kids from being from a council house. And having free dinners, and parents being divorced and all that. That especially was quite a taboo in the early 80s. Nowadays I *think* people are more open minded, which is a great thing.
4/7/08 22:02
tbh i think you're being silly because that generation of council houses - im talking 1950's onwards - tend to be very large houses with large rooms and large gardens.
4/7/08 22:00
The houses I'm talking about are the old ones that look 'obviously' council
Now don't shout me down, but I grew up in a council house, it wasn't great .... and my first place was council as couldn't afford anything else ..... but I 'moved up', in my mind, and managed to buy a private house ...... would there be any 'going back' aspect in buying an ex council do you think, or am I being silly in that?
4/7/08 21:57
id disagree with my town BabyGooch. in a new build HA flat and live on a complex of mixed HA and Private. All flats are identical.
4/7/08 21:55
The council houses around my town (both ex and new estates) tend to have larger rooms and bigger gardens than the private ones.
4/7/08 20:41
WHOO HOOO
We have had both!
We used to live in a lovely teraced house on a busy main road, I loved the house, didn't love the road.
then we moved here an ex council house, it had been bought from the council by a lady who had died then she sold to a woman then sold to us.
The neighbour who was semi with us died last year and the house has been up for slae and sold three times
. God knows who we will end up with!!!!The neighbour to the other side is a council tenant, with a lovely new garden fence and double driveway gates!!! I can't have those because I can't afford them
4/7/08 20:35
see here im just on the right side of a main road to get dd into the better 2 infant schools.....another street to the left and id have the option of one school.
4/7/08 20:32
well, im on a council estate, probably half half, an it makes me the catchment area for the nicest infant school of the 3 in town...so ner!
4/7/08 20:25
id opt for area over property every single time.
Im in a nice flat in an ok part of town but the schools here are, erm, well yeah.
The ex council houses in the area tend to be the large 3 bed ones with the HYAUGE gardens but they tend to also be the ones that have the life long tenants in.
The ex council here is as desirable as the private market and now with the regulations about new builds needing a proportion of council houses there are very few 'council estates' other than the well established ones, which, well, are rough as arseholes.
4/7/08 19:56
Hi All, I am in the central belt of scotland and currently live in an ex council house, 2 bed end terrace. We have just sold and are moving to anothe rex council property again.
We are only moving as the new house will have a drive way and is closer to schools for DD when she goes, only 2.5 just now but these are the things we have to think about now.
Council houses where we are are ostly bought and we feel they are a good investment, we have made 30k in 3 years on this one and expect to make the same on the next one. The house prices round here are not as astonomical as in some other areas of the coutry that you have mentioned, but you can get a 3 bed ex council large gardens etc for under 100 k here, link below will give an example.http://www.remax-scotland.com/PublicListingFull.aspx?lKey=063F68C0-98C9-479D-823A-43F3BD933544 ok they dont look great from the outside but they are normally spacious with gardens.
So after all that waffle, yes we woudl and have bought ex council. in up and coming areas where loads of redevelopment is taking place.
HTH
4/7/08 19:42
There is nothing wrong with buying an ex council/housing association house. I think in most new developments now they have to have a certain amount of council houses anyway so there's really not any difference between council and non-council housing.
4/7/08 19:40
Here it is possible to go to school outwith the area you live. If not though, I wouldn't mind going private.
4/7/08 19:32
It's the same round here, if you live on a council estate your child would only get a place at the school on the estate, which don't tend to be as good. In fact the 3 that are right in the heart of the local authority housing round here are all terrible!
4/7/08 19:30
If the schools were bad, I would send ds to school elswhere.
^^^ also not an option round here - there is such high demand for primary school places, all the decent schools accept children based upon distance & you generally have to live within 1/2 a mile of a good school to get a place.
4/7/08 19:26
I would definitely consider ex-council properties if we were moving. My friend recently bought an ex-council 3 storey Victorian house which is just beautiful from the outside (although the inside needs work!). Some ex-council houses are actually quite nice, they are not all up 14 floors! I think the house more important than the area, as long as it's not tooooooo bad! If the schools were bad, I would send ds to school elswhere.
We've bought an ex-council and it's near one of the best Primary Schools, which was a priority. However we are desperate to move mainly because of the upkeep. Where Victorian properties are quirky our's is just plain uneven...walls, fitting etc. It's not fun learning DIY on a 1950's council house. The other downside is we are surrounded by, predominantly, elderly neighbours who 'capture' us every time we venture out because we have a baby. I also hate bad taste and am a fuss-pot regarding scale.... which is inevitable in ex-council areas where everyone is so desperate to leave their mark on a property and establish it as their own, understandably.
On the plus side, we do have ample space, a massive garden, geat views and my DP can walk to work in 20 mins.
errggghhhhhhhhhh hate the UK property market!!!!!!!!!!