Garden overlooked by several houses - is this a no-no?

[whitechocolatesouffle]

We've found a house we really like which ticks pretty much all the boxes except for the fact that the garden is overlooked by four or five different houses. Our current (small) garden is quite private and although we don't do anything particularly wild in there (other than gardening and sunbathing) it feels relaxing knowing that no-one is looking on.

Has anyone gone from having a private garden to an overlooked garden and did you regret it? I do spend a lot of time in the garden especially now I work from home and it's a bit of a sanctuary for me. I realise that there are things I can do to get more privacy like planting trees and adding trellises etc but these take a while to be effective. Does anyone who has an overlooked garden feel under surveillance or do you just get used to it after a while and relax? I often go out with a coffee in my dressing gown first thing looking a bit of a fright and not sure if the world is ready for this sight.........

To me it depends on what rooms of the other houses overlook. Bedroom window or toilet I wouldn't be so fussed but somewhere people might sit and idly look into my garden would bother me. Our house is overlooked by my neighbours bedroom but I don't mind because we chat and are friendly so I don't feel my privacy is invaded. More than a couple of houses I wouldn't like though.

Our garden is surrounded by other gardens.

We don't feel overlooked as such but the neighbours do annoy me with their noise, BBQ habits, hot tubs and yappy dogs.

They're nice enough and it could be worse to be fair but if you're as antisocial as I am it will grate on you.

I had a once private garden until the neighbour who's garden backed onto ours, trimmed his very large tree out of the blue. It's half the size it used to be. hate it.

They can see right into our kitchen (from their bedroom). I can see what they're watching on TV. I do feel very exposed when I go into my garden and even my kitchen. The man also spends alot of time pruning the trimmed tree so he's up on the ladder looking down into our garden, sometimes when we're out there. It's awkward.

My last house was overlook by a lot of house, the garden never felt private. We barely used it as a result. The noisy neighbours didn't help either.

The privacy of the garden was one of the major positives of the house we moved to.

We moved from a back garden that was completely private (strangely laid out street with nothing behind us) into a house where the neighbour one side can see us when he's in his garden (low wall), neighbour the other side could probably see us from his bedroom and house behind can see our garden from the back of their house and the whole of their back garden.

It's a bit of an odd feeling but we're dealing with it by blocking back neighbour with a giant shed and some trees. Happy to accept neighbours either side as both are friendly and one we have the low wall with is in his late 80s, says hi and tends to leave us too it as I think he enjoys quietly enjoying his garden too.

Any more than maybe 3 houses would be too much for me, and even then I think it would depend on who lives in those houses.

I think it would be hard to go from private to overlooked.

I turned down an otherwise perfect house because the first half of the garden (nearest the house) was walled to left and right by neighbouring houses, each with a decent size window. Village property, so alla bit higgledy-piggeldy, but I just knew I would feel less than relaxed in the garden.

I don't mind bedroom windows looking in (grew up in a Wimpy semi), but I do draw the line at ground floor, where people are more likely to spend their time.

We have a very private garden and it is a huge relaxation not to be overlooked.

I think you won’t use the garden as much if it is overlooked. I would pass. Sorry.

The 4 streets that border the square our house is on means there are 20-odd houses. From the near-ubiquitous loft conversions, most can overlook everyone’s gardens.

You get used to it pretty quickly. It doesn’t bother me at all now. The house and the orientation of the garden matters more (south facing ftw!) once you move in.

Very private garden here, I wouldn’t really like it any other way tbh

I couldn’t.

Not being overlooked is really important for me.

Ours is very overlooked by the terrace of houses backing onto ours. Pretty common in central ish London as the gardens are small - unless you have huge trees, but then you get no sun!

More privacy would be nice but it has never hugely bothered me as it’s not really an option in this area. The noise from other people’s socialising, dogs, kids, DIY is much more of an issue - for me anyway.

Have you got a link to the property / photos so we can see?

Nope - I'm buying a terrace in London and gardens are small amd we rejected a few due to overlooking- especially from French doors on converted lofts. Now the house we chose backs on to a small block of flats, but there are two big trees between it and us, and their parking spaces and it's not their livingrooms facing us when the leaves are gone. My neighbours can look out of their back bedrooms into my garden (as I can in to theirs), but that doesn't bother me so much as I won't be looking up at them.

It depends. Can you afford a house you want and a (very large) garden that isn't overlooked? A garden that isn't overlooked is rare and expensive where I live.

We are overlooked on all sides. But neighbors would have to sit in their bedroom all day if they wanted to watch us. Doesn’t bother me at all

We weren’t overlooked until the houses backing on to us built huge ugly loft extensions,. Now it’s like living in a goldfish bowl.
Still, if anyone finds the sight of me hanging out washing, mowing the lawn or sitting reading in my garden riveting they can have at it. Nothing I can do.

Thanks for all the different views - it's really helpful. I think the thing that is most important to me is the fact that I currently feel totally relaxed in my garden and I'm worried that if I'm overlooked I'll feel a bit self conscious or exposed (even if I'm just sat reading in a deckchair minding my own business).

There's no point me posting a link to the house as the way the garden is photographed doesn't show that it's overlooked at all and it looks really nice (which it is).

My other half doesn't mind the being overlooked issue but it's niggling away at me as my garden really is my sanctuary.

Ours is overlooked by other people's bedrooms, although not nearest the house

Mine is overlooked on all sides as small gardens and terraces. Doesn't bother me as long as I have high fences all around so I don't feel I'm likely to get interrupted or seen close up. Someone gawping from their loft room from far away isn't really a factor to me.

4 house bedrooms over look us. People would actually have to stand in their back bedrooms and look at us though. If they are that way inclined good luck to them. We are pretty boring tbh.

It means we could look into all their gardens from our back bedroom if we wanted to -we don’t, so we assume they are like minded regular people like ourselves.

I think if the garden is your sanctuary then it's a no.

I love how private our garden is and how no one can see in. I couldn't move to one that was overlooked by several houses. You would feel self conscious every time you were out there.

It would definitely be possible to create small areas of privacy in an overlooked garden with clever use of trellis screening, pergolas, seating etc. if you'd be happy with just a couple of private spaces rather than a whole garden. But I would stick to your guns if you have a gut feeling that you hate it because it is miserable having an overlooked garden

Don’t do it! Unless you don’t mind saying goodbye to your privacy. I had little choice financially this time where I moved and have come from a secluded, quiet garden that was my sanctuary to a new build that is back to back and overlooked by far too many houses. I am now hardly ever in the garden and can’t wait for the summer to be over!

You could put up a gazebo for privacy?

I don't do anything in the garden that I would mind people seeing. If anyone wants to watch me having a cuppa and reading a book, they're welcome to