AIBU to take out a £30k personal loan to revamp our odd garden?

[GardenDeLuxe]

Would you??

We've had a rough quote from a gardener and this is the ballpark. We would have to finance it... at least a big chunk of it.

I've lived in my house for over 15 years and the garden has always been pretty rubbish. We have always struggled to know what to do with it. It has a strange plot shape so consists of multiple triangle shapes around the house. We are on a hill as well, so it's on lots of different levels so feels very disjointed.

We have 8 years left on our mortgage (£55k balance)... I think the current rate is currently similar to a personal loan. So, it seems a personal loan is a better way to go??? Seems 'frivolous' to take out a personal loan somehow - but then we would have a horrible garden forevermore otherwise??!

AIBU to just take out a loan as you only live once?!

I just think it's a huge amount for a garden! Have you got other quotes?

Get 2 more quotes, you may well find someone else will have different ideas that you like better. Gardening is easy, just Google everything and follow the instructions. Get a plant app on your phone to find out what plants are. Go to the garden centre every pay day and buy something in flower. In 12 months you will have flowers all-year round. Do you really need to clad the garage? Could you get a big pot of masonry paint (about £40) and just paint it all so that it matched. Then put up a bit of trellis and grow pretty climbers

Nor me. It's a lot of money to start up a garden.

I'd do it. I'm naturally quite frugal, but a good garden can you bring you so much joy. If you can easily afford it, do it OP.

£30K doesn't seem to me huge if it's a large-ish area of land. Materials cost a fortune. I did up my small garden 3 years ago and it cost £20K. Just the concrete for the garden wall foundations, a total length of only around 20m, cost £1K, the bricks £2K, the stone slabs maybe £1.5, the list was endless. The labour involved was huge, and skip after skip to take away old concrete slabs, rotten fencing, topsoil, gravel, etc. With rising costs since 2021, OP's materials /waste disposal could easily cost £15K or more.

I've done loads of interior refurbs but this was the first ever garden and it was actually a horrible experience and not in the least bit fun. BUT the result was fantastic. And it definitely added the same value to the house so not money wasted, but at the time I felt sick at the cost.

@GardenDeLuxe Well, a really lovely outdoor space is a 'nice to have' thing really, isn't it?

Yes, it really is. I know exactly what you mean about a shit garden being a downer. A nice garden is uplifting even when the weather isn't nice enough to sit outside.

As I said in a previous post, I spent what felt like a fortune turning a shit garden into a lovely one, (including a tiny posh potting shed), and it was worth it. But the cost was a much smaller percentage of the house's value than your 10%, so you do need to get more quotes obviously, and consider the cost versus benefit.

Have you asked an estate agent how much your plans would enhance the house value? I know you're not planning to sell, but it might give you an idea of whether it's money down the drain versus 'investment' or between the two. If more investment end of the scale, then it'll make you feel less mad to be spending the money (it did with me!)

That sounds too much for me.

We live in the SE and had ours done in 2021 for £10k. This included relevelling, new turf, stump and bush removal and new patio.

Spending 10% of house value on landscaping is probably worth it, especially if the end result is easy to maintain and gives you joy. Also, you might want to think of it as the equivalent of a new kitchen, which might cost a similar amount.

Noone would be telling you not to if you wanted to replace your kit hen amd bathroom to make it nicer. Improving your environment is a prrfectly reasonable way to spend money. If you can afford it then YES. We spent money on our garden and it makes me happy

I'd say go for it if you can afford it and it will make you happy. People spend that much on new kitchens, so why not. And it WILL add value to your home if and when you move on.

I must admit I was previously in the "go for it" category. I can easily see that a garden could bring you 30k worth of joy. I'm slightly less sure now you have said it is a 300k house. Proportionately, that seems a lot. And I assume the garden is not large.

You probably didn't mean it to, but this sounds very snobby. There are areas in the UK where 300k will get you a good sized house and garden so don't make assumptions. Not everyone has a similar life to you.

That’s outstandingly cheap.

True. I considered adding “unless you’re lucky enough to live in an area where garden space is more affordable than here” but it seemed unnecessary.

it’s still true that you’d normally be more likely to add 30k of value to a house by improving the garden if it was a more expensive house/area. 10% is quite a lot. In that price bracket it would be worth looking at moving house for a nicer garden instead as the moving costs would be relatively low. Whereas if it was a million pound house it would clearly make no sense at all!

@pinkspeakers but it's not about adding value, it's about improving their lives? They're not planning to move so house price doesn't matter. Also it is just wild to suggest moving house like it's an easy thing to do, when OP is presumably happy with her current house for multiple other reasons. Estate agent fees, solicitor fees, removals, stamp duty (or LBTT, which would be even more - and applicable in Scotland where people generally think houses are cheaper) would be about 10k, and it's unlikely OP would find a house that was move-in condition, decorated to her taste and with a garden she liked. Also a risk of potentially having to take an additional/different mortgage at higher rates. And just the inconvenience! Why go through the hassle and upheaval and end up spending (almost) as much?

But if the garden is fundamentally problematic and important to the OP then it could conceivably make sense. Maybe even with 30k spent on it then it still won’t really work if it’s that tricky? And not all the 30k budget is burned up by moving. Whereas if you are buying a million pound property then stamp duty alone is more than 40k.

I’ve not actually moved very often, partly because moving costs are so high. We’ve spent money extending and improving instead. But my parents moved house quite regularly looking for a nicer, more characterful, better located house as moving costs were much lower then. So I maybe don’t see it as as big a deal as others do.

Thanks everyone! So many replies and I read some to my husband… it definitely gave us a lot of food for thought.

To give more context, this is really early stages of the planning so we don’t have comparative quotes at this point. We’re lucky to live in a nice area and the houses are expensive (for the region), but the garden definitely drags our house down.

In terms of value, the £300k I mentioned was based on a valuation perhaps over 5 years ago. We’ve invested into the house over the years but have only ever done piecemeal bits to the different garden areas. We’ve had gardeners before who did planting and maintenance work. However, we need proper landscaping, space planning and creative solutions to various issues.

There’s no way I would move just for a better garden! I love our house in so many ways, and the location is ideal.

The £30k cost was just a guideline based on the early chats we had with the gardener. They do cheaper gardens and (much) more expensive ones.

I think I’ll speak to various garden designers who have a strong portfolio of work. Then, consider getting things done in stages once we have an actual design spec.

Honestly though, this has been so useful. Thanks!