Southern Housing

Please tell us about the good and bad aspects of living in your local area:

Love being a shared owner at Home X. Community is outstanding, beautiful gardens and attentive staff.

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

More info about utility providers e.g. spent alot of time trying to set bill up with Utilita. How temperamental the balcony doors are.

What is the best feature of your home:

Large balcony doors with surrounding views and communal gardens.

Please tell us about the good and bad aspects of living in your local area:

The development is overrunning massively, so no local facilities are open bar a Sainsbury's, who's main contribution to the are seems to be a faulty burglar alarm. When I moved in in 2022 the estate agents told me the site would be completed within a year, but as usual with estate agents it turned out to be a lie and we're still wait now (2026). Bin collection is sporadic at best because the ongoing construction work blocks access for the bin men, and the management company somehow were incapable of foreseeing this and so only acted after the fact (and after many complaints). The development backs onto a main road, so traffic noise during the day is substantial, however, as I was never offered the possibility to use the car park, many of the spaces having been sold to the co-working space across the road, and since the development is not in any of the council's parking zones, I cannot contribute to the traffic myself since it effectively bans me from having a vehicle. Antisocial behaviour is rife, since the continued existence of the building site and poor quality of the fob-controlled locks on site means plenty of scope for e.g. drug dealing exists where it cannot be seen from the street. The incentives of free bus passes and bike discounts that were hawked at me during the sale have never materialised.

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

I was given a spreadsheet showing the service charge breakdown costs, but they should have shown the projected increases, because at 41% per year, I may have baulked and not committed. Properly explaining that the heat network was neither cheaper nor more efficient, and run by an unregulated cartel of companies with opaque pricing would also have put me off, as would the estate agents being honest about the timescale for the completion of the development. The total lack of any parking would also have been good to have highlighted, and the estate agent should have shown me the correct flat (or at least one with the same layout) so that I could see how poorly laid out it was.

What is the best feature of your home:

It's reasonably well insulated, now that the windows have been installed properly.

Please tell us about the good and bad aspects of living in your local area:

The flat is beautiful. If I could pick it up and put it somewhere else I would Gardens and security poorly managed

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

That amenities wouldnt be here That service charges would become unaffordable becoming in some cases more than the mortgage or rent Rubbish and maintenance wouldn’t be of high quality Amenities and concierge very limited of non exustant

What is the best feature of your home:

The interior and my flat Everything else either incomplete or not provided

Please tell us about the good and bad aspects of living in your local area:

Lots of anti social behaviour. Regular police visits in area. Roads are frequently locked off leading to home due to stabbings in area.

How has the building management responded to any problems or issues you have raised:

do not act on matters quick enough or do not act at all.

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

How unsafe the building would be. That service charge is payed and increased yearly dispute services not being given or done.

Please tell us about the good and bad aspects of living in your local area:

Excellent location either way easy transport links and close excellent shops, restaurants and coffee shops.

How has the building management responded to any problems or issues you have raised:

They rarely do!!!! We only get a response following us chasing and chasing and threatening a formal complaint,

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

How dreadful Southern housing are in terms of a managing agent

What is the best feature of your home:

Living area view and location is fabulous. We love it.