Resale on (London) home with AstroTurf instead of grass?

[Chocochocolate]

I am considering putting AstroTurf in my garden. We have kids, the space isn’t huge, and I have sliding doors that lead directly out - so I like the idea of it being mega easy out there, if that makes sense, and no lawn-mowing!

But my question is: would astroturf put buyers off? We plan to sell in a few years. Would buyers prefer grass? (It’s onlt a 20ft london garden.)

We want the best quality AstroTurf we can afford, so it will be a big investment, I just want to make sure it isn’t a bad one!

I live in an expensive property. Not in London. Everyone I know with families is busy putting in AstroTurf. Not the cheap stuff though. I would love it but our garden is too big so it's unaffordable and I have worries that the birds won't be able to catch worms! But if I had a smallish garden I would go for it in a shot. It's mainstream now - won't lose you a buyer.

So many mixed responses! AstroTurf seems a bit marmite!

I live central-ish, zone 2. Place worth maybe £850k. It’s not strictly a family place, we will move as we will outgrow it as a family. But I’d say if you were planning a baby, you’d be tempted by it.

The environmental thing is something I didn’t consider, to be honest!

I hate the stuff, would not want it anywhere near my house, it is so environmentally unfriendly. My DH probably wished we had it as he just spent the whole day Sunday grass cutting.

Astroturf is far easier to return to a real lawn than patio slabs.

Not in my experience - if properly laid, both will have foundation layers beneath that will require digging out and removing which can be a real pain in a typical london garden where everything has to be carried through the house.

@morespaceneeded I have worries that the birds won't be able to catch worms!

I hadn't even considered the poor birds! they'll knock their beaks off trying to dig through it!

We have AstroTurf on our balcony (obviously no option for real grass!). It’s the highest spec you can get and is nice to sit on, looks good.

Having said that - there is absolutely no way I would have Astro turf on the ground. Environmentally it’s a horrible idea. If we looked at a house with fake grass in the garden I’d be taking into account the cost Of ripping it up and putting in proper lawn when I considered my offer.

I hate fake grass.

I’d factor in the cost of replacing it when making an offer on your property.

If you don’t want grass, decking or nice paving / patio looks much classier.

We have it and I know lots of other people either have or are planning to have it.

Having looked about I can tell the cheaper grasses compared to the more expensive so if it was cheap I would be thinking I need to replace it. Most house purchases come with a compromise so no I can't see that one thing being a deal breaker for most people.

But it's not always about looking classier, it's about having kids play football on it...

I know lots of people who have it now and it looks fab, they are all thrilled with it. Particularly the ones with football obsessed kids.

We live on a fairly central London street of £1.5m+ houses. All the gardens are about 5x7m, and literally half have astroturf - the rest are completely paved. They're terraces, and carting the cut grass through the house is a complete pain. Listen to the Londoners on this thread OP - I'd say that good quality astroturf will have no detrimental effect on your property value.

I put easi-Mayfair ‘astro’ grass into a previous property we had, the photo is after a long winter so the hardwood deck and Japanese bath etc needed oiling again.

Obviously the designed garden isn’t to everyone’s taste but we liked it and when it came to selling, the garden priced the house at £20k more than an identical house on the next cul de sac without the Japanese bath or furniture

Ultimately the Astro grass comes up and the sand move in under a couple of hours and new grass then very easy to install

If it's a family house, and a choice between artificial grass and paving slabs, I'd go for the artificial grass. Paving slabs are not at all friendly for children playing outside, and it's much easier to replace artificial grass with real, if a future buyer should want to, than to rip up paving slabs.
In a small garden, especially if shade is a factor, artificial grass can make a lot of sense.

I don't like the stuff, but it's readily reversible using a few rolls of turf so it wouldn't be a deal breaker for an otherwise suitable property

I wouldn't buy a house with it. Have viewed one and it was awful, a mess.

Replacing with turf is not always successful and it can die.

It is also bad for the environment, all the little creatures that need grass to live. Then there is the smell of freshly cut grass.

If you have hayfever it won't make a lot of difference unless all the neighbours also have fake grass.

Replacing with turf is perfectly easy. They don't dig down to bedrock...

It's often a question of a reasonably soft surface for small children to play on. Hard landscaping doesn't cut it with little ones. Whether it looks 'classy' will often be of very secondary importance.
As for decking, unless you have a very sloping garden, when it may be the only practical solution, then IMO it's both passé and naff. And what's more, rats love living under decking.

We live in London and just bought last year. One of the reasons we crossed places off our list was if they had astroturf or decking, because we wanted our garden to actually be a garden, not just 'outside space'. Terrible for the environment too.

But it's quite possible that others might like it I guess, I know a few people who've done it.

For us it was either paving, wood chip or fake grass because no lawn was going to take properly in the shadow of a massive sycamore. We have beds at the back and down both sides with loads of plants and stuff growing to attract bees etc, a bird house, lots of stuff in pots and planters - I honestly can’t see how the other options would have been better for the immediate environment / birds eating worms etc....

We're in London, expensive family area. Loads of astroturf around us. We're getting our turf replaced with astro next year. I used to be dead against it, but then our small lawn turned into a balding scatter of weeds and mud, we lost all time to take care of it, and I got sick of the kids traipsing mud in every time they so much as set foot outside. Love going to friends' houses where the kids run in and out without mud or shoes. So I'm an astro convert.

Having said that - if yours is more of a "first baby" house than a "young children" house - you may find that type of buyer is put off by fake grass... as they haven't yet had the reality of kids with a small real grass lawn...

Zone 2 here as well and most houses over £1.5m. Generally either paving or easy grass etc as small gardens. The only people with real grass have large south facing gardens. I really don't think it puts people off and I'm not sure that fake grass is worse for the environment than paving? But happy to be corrected....
We recently redid our garden and good quality fake grass was no more than nice paving. We went for tiles as garden is so small you can't kick a football anyway and kids are older.
In summary- don't think it will put buyers off! (And if your going to be there for a while, do you you want to do!).

Does anyone have access to the Which report they wouldn't mind summising of Wonderlawn vs Easigrass?

The Easigrass sample is far softer than the Wonderlawn sample so I'd like to know why Wonderlawn has such a high Which rating.

I would snap up a house with astroturf in a heartbeat

I hated mowing the grass at my old house and love the fact our back yard is now entirely concrete.

I really don't like it. Would be suspicious of the drainage problems/ run-off.

Dh wants to install it. I don't like it.