smileygreebins

Hi all. We're lucky enough to be considering the purchase of a house with some land in Pinet, Languedoc. Village is lovely (happy to hear from anyone with alternate views or insights) and proximity to the beach is good.
However a walk around the perimeter of the town yesterday saw me finding the social housing development - partial construction of high density homes that my real estate agent assures me are only for people with children and retirees.
I'm aware of the social housing commitment in France. But not being from these parts, I'd love to hear from anyone who has experienced such a development in their own area? I will seem naïve, but with the increase in migrant workers and refugees into France, I wonder what if any impact we should consider in terms of prospective tenants into that social housing - inclusive of future resale, crime rates, deterrent to future home purchasers, etc?
Thanks in advance....

EuroTrash

There's HLMs not far from me, old 60s high rise blocks but absolutely nothing like eg White City in London - these have lace curtains and geraniums and pot plants on the balcony instead of obscene grafitti. I don't think there's the same social stigma as in the UK. Qualifying for low cost housing doesn't have to equate to social exclusion, on benefits, disaffected, criminal, junkie etc, although for some reason it all too often does seem to mean just that in the UK. I could be wrong but I think people are vetted and wouldn't be offered social housing if they weren't felt to be deserving. Anyway the people in these HLMs are respectable, they tend to be young families, or elderly folk, and a few immigrants but we don't seem to have many of those here.

babyposer

Hi there

It depends where you live really.

In some expensive cities, social housing will be great because people who get them still have high incomes and can be quite 'posh'.

Usually if the city is big you have higher chances to get rough people.

Your village is not far from Béziers which is well known in France to be a rough city so I don't know... I would check out the other HLM in your village to see how they look like.

dmu

Hi, and welcome to the forum!
We live in the Hérault but have never been to Pinet. On the other hand, we often buy Picpoul de Pinet which is a delicious dry, but fruity, white wine!
There's no knowing whether your local HLMs will be inhabited by "undesirables", but there are certainly many immigrants from North Africa in the Département (nothing to do with the present refugees from the Near East), and the "children" mentioned by your Estate Agent might in fact be French families on a low income, of Maghreb origin.
It's doubtful that the crime-rate in a small village such as Pinet would be high.....
If you have children, there's a Primary school, but be aware that there isn't a local Collège nor Lycée and they would have to take the school bus to the nearest ones, which might be a factor when deciding where to settle, as all their school friends would be scattered. But adolescents and Secondary schooling is another problem which would deserve a new thread. If you haven't got children, then there's no problem!!

cyrian

Social housing is completely different to the UK.
Each commune is required by law to provide a certain amount of social housing. If they don't comply then they (the commune) must pay (in our case) the neighbouring commune to provide the extra HLMs.
To avoid this, our commune requires any new-build development to include HLM accommodation within the development.
You can therefore have new-build "private" apartment blocks that contain social housing.
In our commune, the majority of apartments are rented to a frequently changing population including social tenants.

dmu

It's just occurred to me that I sound a tad racist in my thread above, but I'm not.
It's simply a fact that there are a lot of second- and third-generation Maghrebins in the Hérault (not surprising as their (grand)parents arrived in Sète) and a lot of them are on low incomes. Most, at least in small towns or villages, are law-abiding.
You'll get some young yobbos, but they come in all colours, and don't go unnoticed in a small village, and they can be dealt with by the local authorities.

scot47

Social Housing in the UK varies enormously - from ghastly Housing Estates in the big cities to small-scale developments in rural areas and small towns. France too has a huge variety.

smileygreebins

Thanks all for your observations. A little more due diligence needed from us clearly. No kids to worry about, although an interesting consideration from a resale appeal perspective. Maybe we've just been blinded by the chance to live so close to water and fresh oysters....and the local wine is of course a big plus too! Thanks again for taking the time to provide input.