Home sweet home

vegas it would have been funny if the police had turned up thinking they were breaking up a teenage rave! One of those times when I would love to have been 'a fly on the wall'.

That made me laugh vegasmags

I think private ownership of property is still much more common in the UK than in the rest of Europe. However, rent in most cases is more than would be paid on a mortgage for a comparable property.
I live in a flat in a block of 24, on four floors, and there are three other similar blocks. We have one concierge (well, it is in France!) and we pay charges to a management company. My flat is very small - 24 sq. metres, with one living room with a 'coin cuisine' ( a bit like a galley on a small boat), one double bedroom and a bathroom. There is a platform bed in the hall, with wardrobe space underneath.
I never feel claustrophobic, because I have French windows opening onto a balcony with a lovely view down the valley.
I am away from home a good deal, about three months a year, so it suits me to have no garden to worry about. I can just turn off my water and electricity and pop over to New Zealand for seven weeks at a time.
Not everybody wants or needs a garden - my first house in France had one and also an above-ground pool, and I found they both needed constant maintenance. I would have liked, ideally, to buy a flat on a complex with a shared pool, but they were much more expensive. We just have a tennis court!

When Salford tenants first moved to the 'overspill' estate near Bolton, there was a lot of house exchanging as some families could not bear to be 10 miles away from their families, their local pubs, and employment. What happened was that 'aspirational' working class families exchanged with those who wanted to return to Salford, so the estate ended up being very respectable! I have to give a wry smile when people talk about council estates as if they were all awful - we thought we had struck gold when my father's health finally entitled us to a council house with a garden, two toilets and a lovely fitted kitchen, in instead of the rodent and cockroach infested house in Salford.
I wonder if it would be possible for councils or housing associations to draw up a list of people who wanted smaller properties, and families looking for more space, and to marry them up for exchanges?

Janerowena I think you're right in that we don't do the sharing thing very well, especially between generations. As for wild parties, my brother lives in sheltered accommodation with a very lively social life. They were having a karoke party one Saturday night and one of the neighbours in a nearby house called the police to complain about the racket at 2 am. I would have loved to have seen the look on the policeman/policewoman's face when they asked where the noise was coming from

we got 100% mortgage from GLC to buy a place..it had to be so grim no other place would give a mortgage on it! We bought our first place that way.

An idea was once mooted by some of our friends that when we all retired we should sell up our homes and buy a big enough place for us all to have a bedroom with ensuite& small sitting room each with a big communal kitchen / living space and a flat for our carer! That would ensure company and care. We didn't do it though!

When we married in 1969, we were lucky enough to get onto what was called, as far as I can remember, a co-ownership scheme. We rented a brand new flat (these flats were in a nice area and built in 3 storey blocks). We paid rent and all our own bills. We had to agree to stay for 5 years and then when we left they gave us back a percentage of the rent we had paid over the years. This served as a deposit for our first house, which we would never have been able to save otherwise. Can't remember exactly how it worked but it was a great scheme.

I had to call on someone in a block of social housing in Southampton, they had a concierge. I was quite surprised but thought what a good idea it was.

Vegasmags, in Winchester we had several elderlyish couples renting out their rooms to girls. I have to say, my son is lovely and not a noisy clubber or drinker, but he doesn't clear up after himself very well! I would advise any private house taking him on to add cleaningupafterhim charges. I think students like to stick together and make the most of still being at a stage in their lives where everyone they see is of their generation. That wouldn't worry my son, but I know it does worry some of his friends. No-one is going to complain about student parties in a student block.

I often think that in this country we value our privacy and own space too much. Many blocks of flats were built and companies went bust because no-one wanted to live in a flat, they all wanted small houses. Whereas in countries such as Sweden, living in a flat is the norm, no matter how many pretty pictures of falu red country summer cottages you may see. As I feel the same, I can't blame them. I lived in a flat for 10 months and felt imprisoned, maybe a balcony would have helped. We have got out of the habit of living all together as a family, with all generations together, as well. Neighbours of mine have a farm, the house is vast. Of three sons only one has married, but sooner than live in the farmhouse the other two sons have bought houses locally while their parents rattle about in a vast decaying house that could have been turned into very nice separated appartments. Madness.

Concierge is the French, therefore posh, word for janitor, or even caretaker. It's interesting that whereas Scottish schools always had janitors (jannies), English schools have caretakers.

The timber-frame houses are rather good, Merlotgran The price is for self-build, so asembly would have to be added, and there don't seem to be kitchen and bathroon fittings in the spec, unless I have missed them. But it shows what is possible, and how housing can be built, and there must be many more examples.

I think house swaps are still possible, but you do need to find someone yourself who wants to swap their house with yours. I remember someone in a house in Crossgates, just outside Dunfermline, who used to advertise frequently, wanting to swap for a house in a more convenient area. One day we were passing so drove past to see just where it was - on a busy corner of a noisy main road, near some pretty awful industrial buildings. Not surprising that they got no takers.

Infrastructure is important. No use living in a palace with no shops, schools, buses, or medical facilities within reach.

Were concierges' janitors in the olden days!?

Lilygran, some social housing multi-storey blocks do have concierges. A neighbour's daughter has recently moved into one in a refurbished block in the neighbouring authority. There is certainly a concierge (whether or not they call them that) in her block. I hope that this is a growing trend.

Locally houses are a ridiculous price. The old bus sheds have been knocked down and student accommodation will be built. This was opposed by the university but because the planning is dealt with by the county not the city it was passed. We need young family accommodation but again no one has looked at the infrastructure . Sewerage is aging and needs replacing and schools are full and in demand as children are bused in from outlying villages for historic political reasons. An old hospital close by is also being turned into luxury flats. No mixed housing at all. Housing will always be a problem if you have councils who have their own agenda.

What's needed here is a strategic overview. How about someone Elegran or GNHQ collecting all these ideas and handing them in at No.10 or perhaps No.11? I'm up for a day trip to London to help. Bit of publicity for GN.

Didn't there used to be a council house swap scheme years ago?

e.g. check out the Rural Homes price guide.

I'm not advertising but this website gives good examples of how reasonably priced kit homes can be.

www.scotframe.co.uk/

I think there are some prefabs in B'ham with preservation order on them.

I think a lot of people really liked living in prefabs. They weren't all the same or made of the same materials. We loved my aunt's prefab; she only moved because they were going to demolish them to build houses. People seem to manage to live in multi storeys in other countries as well but you really need live-in caretakers to deal with repairs and security. Which they only provide in luxury blocks of flats.

My cousin's daughter worked in a University accommodations office and did match students. Often female Muslim students preferred to be in a home situation rather than digs (or at least their parents preferred it!).

I can imagine the denizens of Cheltenham wanting the council estate well away from them!

Yes, the accommodation officer is the person to ask. Once you are in their files they can pass on your name. It also gives you a safeguard against unsuitable tenants, and they can advise you about the going rate and mutually acceptable rules and so on.

We have a local new development which I think is nearly finished and it has everything from 4 bed detached to social housing. There is also a community centre. I think this is a great idea as before we moved here we lived in what I described as a 'posh ghetto', no mixed housing at all. One of the things I love about living here is the variety of housing and only one small 'problem' area. If housing is mixed it is much easier for us all to integrate and avoid the 'them and us' mentality.

Recently on our way back from a day out my friend got lost and we ended up driving through a huge rough area of Cheltenham. Estates like that should be phased out and replaced with mixed development imo.

Sorry, I know I've gone off the point a bit.

I do agree that the young have higher expectations than we did. I shared a bedsit and we shared a bathroom with a married couple.

Elegran I have advertised on Gumtree but haven't had any luck. The only people who contacted me were not students and really not suitable. I think there is an accommodation officer at the university, so perhaps I should make contact there. You're right harrigran in that I wouldn't be keen on male students as I live alone.

I remember, when I was younger, neighbours having Indian engineering students staying with them. The students seemed very happy in their lodgings and returned to visit for many years. She was a widow and took three male students, times are different, would a lone woman do this now ?