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Original poster

Would this put you off buying a house?

41 replies

SingingBabooshkaBadly · 13/01/2018 16:52

We are planning on putting our house on the market shortly. It's a three bed semi with a large garden in the catchment area of a well-regarded seconadary school. Our garden has pretty big pond. If you have younger children would this stop you buying a house you otherwise liked or would you be prepared to buy it and get rid of the pond yourself?

OP posts:

Didiusfalco · 13/01/2018 21:46

It would put me off. I would be prepared to deal with it if your house fulfilled my other criteria but if I could get a similar house to yours minus the pond that house would be the one I went for.

mummyeme · 13/01/2018 21:51

I'd enjoy the house and the pond. If I had little ones I'd fence it round safely, surely it's a managed risk. This offers a lot of amazing opportunities for children (wildlife, understanding safety and children ought to be monitored outside anyway) and shouldn't be a negative.

BackforGood · 13/01/2018 22:03

If I'm honest, it would put me off.
I've never had to fill in a pond before, don't know who I'd get to do it, have no idea what it would cost, and frankly wouldn't have to want to do a job that I felt was needed for safety (so needed to be done asap), on the back of the stress of moving.

Now, if your house were perfect in every other way, then it wouldn't ultimately stop me, but if I were looking at 3 other similar houses that week, then it would be on the 'cons' side of my 'pros and cons list' IYSWIM.
Same as lots of things about houses - not saying 'I'd never buy one with', but if there were another house on my list that didn't need changing, then the other house would be the one I'd be putting the offer in on.

comfortandjoy · 13/01/2018 22:13

We bought a house with a pond. We had a preschooler when we bought who has enjoyed watching the ducks come with their baby ducklings every year. Kids generally love ponds. If a friend comes around with a toddler I always warn them but wouldn't let a little one wander outside alone anyway.

meandmytinfoilhat · 13/01/2018 22:18

I would buy and drain myself.

pilates · 14/01/2018 08:12

No it wouldn’t put me off, I would either get rid or make it child safe.

Tangoandcreditcards · 14/01/2018 08:16

Recently bought our dream house which had a swimming pool(!) Unheated and "tired" so essentially a pond!

(2 preschool DCs)

We fenced it off for the time being and will remove shortly. We did consider refurbing and keeping the pool, but it was too much work and too expensive in both the short and long term.

It was definitely a "minus" when buying the house (we negotiated the price down by the cost of filling it in - and it's a bit more costly to remove a pool because harder to reinstate ground drainage). But we weren't going to let what was essentially a garden feature put us off the perfect house in the perfect location.

Kokapetl · 14/01/2018 16:54

We have small DC and wouldn't be put off by a pond. We would probably cover it over or fence it off for a few years.

LuluJakey1 · 14/01/2018 20:21

We bought our house about 15 months ago. It has a pond - no fish but frogs and toads. It has a grid over it just under the surface. DS 3 is fascinated. DD will be probably when she is old enough. The cats are the most interested.

PinkSparklyPussyCat · 15/01/2018 11:09

We're in the process of selling DM's house and it didn't even occur to me to fill in or drain the pond. As far as I'm concerned whoever buys it can deal with it.

heron98 · 15/01/2018 11:57

We've got a beck at the bottom of our garden.

We worried that it would put parents off, but the people who are buying it have two young kids. So I think a pond would be fine.

AstridWhite · 15/01/2018 12:01

I wouldn't fill it in, it will be expensive and look ugly unless you spend thousands on re-landscaping and some people won't have small children and will love it.

Let people knock you down a bit to allow for the expense of either filling it in or putting up a fence and if they have little kids agree to allow the work to be done after exchange so they can move in with it done, if it's that much of an issue.

PinkAvocado · 15/01/2018 12:04

It would put me off if there were other houses without such a massive pond on the market too but if I really wanted to live in that specific area it may not. However, I’d be looking to fill it in asap so would be keen to find out costs.

Our house had a very small pond when it was on the market and we made it a condition of sale that it was removed before completion.

whiskyowl · 15/01/2018 12:10

No, I'd see it as a positive - love a pond.

HeadDreamer · 15/01/2018 12:15

We bought a house exactly like that. Good school catchment, but has a koi pond. When we moved in we have a 4 and 1 year old. I have never let my kids out before unsupervised and won’t start. Also the catchment is for secondary so your buyers might have much older kids than 5 or 6 year olds.

We have put little boats into the koi pond in summer

And also it’s easy enough to fill a pond and add paving.

Original poster

SingingBabooshkaBadly · 15/01/2018 14:35

Thanks everyone. So interesting to see the answers which range from people with small DC who would actually like a pond to those who would be actively put off and everything in between. The concensus seems to be leave it and be open to price negotiations/sorting it out as a condition of sale. Really appreciate everyone's imput.

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