Garden Design And Property Value

It is well known that spending money on a new kitchen or bathroom will help to increase the value of a property. However, do well-designed gardens now fall into the same category?

Results of a recent study by National Savings and Investments (NSI) show 17% of those questioned spent money on their garden in order to increase the value of their property. In fact, Brits spend £4.2 billion a year on their gardens with the main aims being to provide a relaxing space and to encourage wildlife. Interestingly it is the under 24 age group that are more likely to consider the effect on the value of their property while they are least concerned about the effect on wildlife.

Nicholas Leeming, director of national property website propertyfinder.com confirms the logic of these findings. "Gardens play a hugely important role in selling homes and can add significant value to a property. Our research shows that well-tended front gardens are the most important factor that attract buyers to a street. Back gardens are even more important." He also suggests that simply having a garden can increase a property's value by up to 15% and the closer matched the style is to the target market the quicker the property will sell.

Although it is likely that the larger the property the more important the garden becomes it is also clear that purchasers of smaller properties also find the addition of a low-maintenance garden to be invaluable. Over the last few years garden makeover television programmes have shown that garden design is not just for the rich and famous, that any garden is worthy of a good design no matter how small.

This becomes especially important for smaller, more common properties in times when property is in recession. Vendors need to make their property stand out from the crowd so once the kitchen and bathroom have been crossed of the list the garden is the next option. A good designer will work to the client's budget and if the design is targeted to the right market then the property will stand a much better chance of selling.

Perhaps it is a step too far to say that a well-designed garden will definitely increase the value of a property but one thing is clear, at the least it will greatly increase the chance of a sale and at the most will also give the vendor the opportunity to raise the asking price for the property.

© Sharon Brown 27th January 2008