In the USA, an estate normally refers to one of two things:
1. A person has died and all their belongings, house, etc. are considered the deceased’s estate. “Oh I’m having to go through my mother’s estate. She died last week”.
2. A large piece of land that someone rich lives on. It typically includes at a minimum a mansion. However, pools, tennis courts, guests houses, horse stables, gardens, etc. would also be considered a part of the estate (if it’s on the same piece of property as the house).
However, it appears that the term estate is referring to something different when used in the UK. Like the “council estate” or “the estate is mixed private owner and council-owned”. So does it just mean a neighborhood?
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All of the above plus the crown estate, and an estate car. 😁
Yeah it’s a neighbourhood. Which can be council owned or a mixture of private and council properties. We don’t have blocks here like the USA does, so we refer to areas as estates.
The other two you listed are valid here as well.
We commonly use the word ‘estate’ to refer to council estates.
A council estate is a residential complex intended to house the poorer classes. Council estates are often perceived as dangerous, dingy places.
A council estate is a housing development built by the local government authority and managed and let out by them.
It’s sort of the same as a neighbourhood, as a general meaning, but not all neighbourhoods are estates. To be an estate it would specifically be built as a housing development.
Usually a cluster of streets/houses that were built around the same time. So one estate may be 1930s, another may be 1970s, another modern. It’s just a way to refer to a specific residential area.
Say the main road through the estate is Kingston Crescent, it might be known as the Kingston Crescent estate.
Or often, in these new developments, the street names are all on a theme. So you might also hear something like ‘the flower estate’ because all the streets are named after flowers.
A council estate is similar but also means most of the houses within that estate either are, or were, social housing (owned by the state and offered at subsidised rents.
Another thing you might hear is ‘jam butty estate’. Jam butty is what you’d call a jelly sandwich. It’s jokingly used to refer to new developments that are so expensive the owners can presumably only afford to eat jam butties.
An Estate in UK property terminology is usually a set of properties that were all built at roughly the same time and the buildings have a common / similar design and look to them. Can include many streets.
In vehicle terms an estate is what would otherwise commonly be known as a Station Wagon or Shooting Brake outside of the UK
Estates have typically been low cost housing. Most would have started out as owned by the local government (council estate), and rented to low income, unemployed or essential workers. A lot were sold off into private ownership as part of Margret Thatcher’s push for private ownership in the 80s. The properties were typically sold to long-term tenants for big discounts.
In the inner-city, estates are usually a collection of tower blocks of flats (apartments). Some have green areas, and possibly a kids playground. They would often be in the less desirable areas, like next to a busy train line or main road. As you go further from the city centres, estates then become more of a mix of flats and houses. They’ll often have poor access to the main transport links.
Estates were often higher crime areas
> Like the “council estate” or “the estate is mixed private owner and council-owned”. So does it just mean a neighborhood?
In that context, yes. But it’s a bit more specific. “Estate” usually implies a relatively large area where all the roads and homes were built at the same time during the 20th or 21st century. Council estates in particular were and are the UK’s version of public housing, aimed at low income people, and many became blighted by lack of job opportunities, neglect of maintenance especially of tower blocks, and antisocial behaviour and crime.
Since the 1980s council house tenants have been able to buy their homes, which is why you get “the estate is mixed private owner and council-owned”.
The more direct translation of the US “neighborhood” would just be “area”. This doesn’t have the connotations that “estate” does and would be used to refer to an area with housing of more varied ages and types. (Edit: There’s lots of areas where all the roads and homes were built at the same time during the 19th century, often by industrialists to house their factory workers. For whatever reason such areas are very rarely called “estates”). “Neighbourhood” is less common in British English but will be understood.
Council estates would be most akin to the Projects in USA. That’s not too say that they are all bad, but they aren’t always the best areas either.
They were originally state owned for the poorer members of society and were built as an answer to slum clearance and urban renewal.
A lot of council estates are not bad places, but there are likely some research families that being the address down. A kit also have houses privately owned and are more gentrified
A housing estate or a station wagon.
I live in a tower block on a council estate and most people rent there place but when margaret thatcher was the PM a scheme was introduced that people renting a council house could buy it if they had lived there a seiten amount of time and thats why on a council estate there are people that own where they live
Also, what is called a council estate in England is often called a “scheme” in Scotland.
The fourth estate is the media/press.
Obviously.
‘Estate’ in the context you’re asking about usually refers to a cluster of homes/streets all built together (at once or in phases) mostly for social housing.
In much of the UK, these are streets of council houses so a bit akin to your ‘neighbourhoods’, whereas in major cities they will often be smaller clusters of high density apartment blocks and towers.
Technically it doesn’t have to refer to social housing but that’s its common use. In reality due to the ‘right to buy scheme’ the vast majority of estates have a mix of social and private owners.
UK defintions
estate agent – a realtor; someone who sells property
estate – an inheritance: the property of a dead person left to (eg) a relative
council estate – social housing: Usually a group of roads or buildings. Nowadays these tend to be mixed Private and council ownership, as people have brought their old houses
Private estate – a large piece of land belonging to someone (eg) a lord or private company
estate – a station wagon
Car with a big boot