KDM":e98obh65 said:
The blind leading the blind often hides what is really happening. My descriptions did not apply to all nor did it say so, however many will recognise those examples and in those cases very few of them will be by people who have bought their own places
Let me put this too you bats, just a theory, You have a million pounds to spend on a house and you want one estate, at one end there is the housing association end and the other the buying your own house end, what end would you buy in and why?
I grew up on an estate like you describe and you're missing something important.
My estate wasn't always like that. It was quite a nice area, until the pits closed, which meant that most of those living there ended up skint. Still nice people but they were short of cash so when stuff got broken it didn't get fixed.
Now at this point it's starting to look a bit tatty. We're talking the early 90s when people where I grew up still had the luxury of choice when it came to council housing. Most people came, saw it was tatty, and then chose somewhere else.
So we get a few empty houses boarded up. We're in a proper decline now. Council decides that since nobody chooses to move there anymore, they might as well move problem families in.
Now it's not so nice to live. The nice familes who'd been there start to leave. Council ships in more problem people.
Property developers are looking to buy land for a new estate at this point. They've got mates on the council. It's figured that the more the council estate declines, the cheaper it is for "redevelopment". So the police are told not to bother going in.
Eventually everyone gets an eviction notice. Property developers get the entire estate, boot everyone out, flatten all the houses. Build £450/month 1-bedroom flats that look like they're from 1950s Russia inside they're so small.
Now, that was my sinkhole estate and the reason behind it all was so they had an excuse to clear it away for expensive new development. So I can tell you two things I know for certain: Not every council estate is this way, and those who do this sort of malicious social engineering aren't going to do it to a brand new building full of millionaires.
As for what I'd buy with a million: I'm spending about £75k on a three bed semi, fitting a good alarm and forgetting about it. Rough is what I'm used to.