Do ponds tend to put off house buyers or reduce house value?

[Tumty]

I just been looking at articles online which are conflicting. Some say they increase value and some say they reduce value.

I wouldn't buy a house with a pond personally because we have dogs. If I had young DC or DGC I wouldn't either. Every year we read about a dc who died after falling in a garden pond in either parents or grandparents gardens.

I’d love a pond, it would be a plus from me.

No, I would love a pond!

I would love a pond, it would be a selling point for me.

If it was the sort that was big enough for me to swim in, it would be a selling feature. The river at the bottom of our garden was a bonus when we bought our house and we’ve discussed putting in a ‘pond’. Our dc were primary age though and we have several acres.

In a normal sized garden, I probably wouldn’t want it taking up too much space, but that said, they are easy to fill in if you really don’t want it.

I think more and more people are understanding the rapid decline of our environment and the need for us to help as much as possible and so I think wildlife ponds are becoming more popular.

Didn't put us off but we didn't want the pond and were intending filling it in. When we moved in they had 'kindly' put in some goldfish. So now we have fish that cost us a fortune. We added nicer fish to it but last year a mink got all the lovely big fish 🤯

I have a 2yr old and a 4yr old but they've never been a risk near the pond as it is raised.

I think it depends on your circumstances, and you can argue there's lots of things you can overthink in a house, ie some would prefer a shower, for others it'd be a big 'no'.

For us, it wouldn't stop me from buying the perfect house, but I would have to factor filling it into my finances - this is because we've got two cats. Our last house, my cat fell into neighbour's pond, luckily was ok, but I wouldn't risk it again. However, we have friends with a large pond, he likes to take us out every time we visit to see his fish and we enjoy seeing them - others would love this option.

I would view the house, but I would deduct a couple of thousand from my offer to cover having it removed. Even if a pond isn’t a safety concern, they are a massive faff to upkeep and breed midge.

It didn't exactly put us off but we filled it into after we moved and we did take into account the cost of doing that when we offered. (However I will add that it wasn't exactly a 'pond' that we filled in - it was a ginormous almost lake area that took surface water off the road and took over 300 tons of soil to fill - so not exactly a garden pond!).

I have a small child and I think a big deep pond would put me off. However, I'm considering putting a small pond in my front garden where my son wouldn't have free access and I'm excited to show him how frogs develop

Why is it bad for a dog to drink from a pond? My dog buried his face in fox poo this morning. Surely nothing can be as bad as that?

It wouldn't put me off at all, in fact if I had to choose between two ideal properties and one had a pond, I'd choose the one with the pond. I've always wanted one.

I'd love a pond, even with DCs (I'd get a safety grille) but they're a bit 90's now so it would need to be designed carefully with the rest of the garden to ensure it didn't look dated.

My dog used to go running and splashing in all sorts of bodies of water and nothing bad ever happened to him. He came home from walks covered in anything and everything.

@Tumty context is eveything. It completely depends on the land, setting, how big the pond is relative to the land its on.

Unless you can provide any more details it's impossible to tell, however, unless you are having consistent feedback from a number of viewers (at least 5) that 'they love the house and garden but can't stand the pond,' I wouldn't spend any money at the moment to fill it in.

I think it’s to do with algae. There’s a loch close by and the water looks fine but is apparently not great for dogs. Mine drinks out river/ puddles/ burns I’m none of which is great either and is absolutely fine. I suspect some g dh it’s would be more susceptible than others do everyone errs on the side of caution.

I have a pond and I think it's a negative for those with younger children. But I love it and this is a forever home for me. We aren't moving out until we downsize. The pond is not a sunken one but built up like a raised flower bed with rendered walls. I have teen and tween and they aren't going to fall into the pond.

We've had a safely covered pond as ll the time we've had children. Pretty easy to do.

We've got a big garden with a big pond in it, had young children and a dog alongside. I find it really sad that people are so disconnected from the natural world that they would just fill it in. It's wonderful seeing tadpoles, dragonflies, birds swooping for insects, butterflies around the edges etc.

A swimming pool on the other hand would be a real turn off. Ugly, take up loads of space and high maintenance.

@Lovelysummerdays I didn't know that. To be fair mine was a very robust mongrel who never got ill a day in his life until he was 14 so I never had to worry much about him. DSIL has a miniature poodle so she's probably got a different take on things to me.

I regularly walk past a beautiful Victorian house with a large pond in the back garden. I love the idea of it (not that I could ever afford such a house) but the reality would be constant anxiety about where the dog is (the cat is too sensible) and is he drowning/poisoning himself. Some types of algae are extremely toxic for dogs. Then there would be the constant vigilance if young nieces and nephews came round.

One of my friends has a mother with a large pond in her garden. He has to go round and do some heavy duty maintenance on it every so often (real rubber waders and spade-work stuff) to prevent it flooding the entire garden in bad weather. Again, it looks beautiful and is great for wildlife but the upkeep involves a bit of effort.

It's so sad that so many people seem to move into a house and fill in a pond, we have frogs, newts and all sorts of wildlife in ours not to mention all the birds that use it. DS was perfectly safe in the garden with the pond because we watched him. It didn't put us off buying the house at all and we never fenced in or covered the pond.

We have 3 ponds: one in the back garden, one in the front garden and one at our allotment. DS did fall into the wildlife one at the back up to his neck once when he was a toddler but we were there to fish him out. It is full of frogs and frogspawn every year.

The one at the front has a couple of fish and delights passing children. No spawn as the frogs at the front appear to be single-sex or gay. Ours and other local cats and foxes drink out of it.

The one at the allotment is new and we're waiting to see what happens in the spring.

Ponds are a valuable resource and will be relied upon by the local wildlife who consider your garden part of their home also. Please consider this when thinking about filling them in and destroying the inhabitants.

Eh? How can a pond be dated? Could you enlighten us, please?