How much difference does garden size make to a property value?

[trixymalixy]

I realise this is probably a how long is a piece of string question, but interested to hear what people think.

Say you have two desirable houses which are exactly the same, house A has a really decent sized garden but house B has a garden that is maybe 1/3 bigger. What would you expect the price differential to be? How much extra are people willing to pay for extra garden?

Probably a lot because the land is often the most valuable part of the property.

For me it would depend on the garden. Would there be a possibility to extend the house into the garden? Is it south facing or north facing? Is the bigger garden right next to a motorway or train line which would make sitting in it not very appealing`?

I' d say the difference is small garden- decent garden, and decent garden to subdivifpde the plot sized garden.
Within those bands, j don't think itvwould makes a massive price difference, but would probably make it an easier sell - assuming family home.

It depends if you like gardens really. I have a large house, with patios and no gardens. I can sit outside and eat, and grow plants in pots, but having a lawn doesn't worry me.

How much extra are people willing to pay for extra garden?

People don't always see it as a positive. New-builds like to boast about their minuscule gardens for busy-busy-people-who-don't-have time-to waste-on-boring-old-gardening.
It depends on how easy the garden is to maintain and what else you can do with it (extension, shed, garage, etc).

I was trying to be non specific in my question, but am obviously thinking of particular houses. My neighbour's has come up for sale and I was just wondering how much their larger garden would add to the price.

The houses are side by side so same aspect, same road noise etc. Detached Victorian 4 bed villas.

Our garden is probably too big for us, plenty big enough to fit an extension if required, big double garage, enough lawn for a big swing set and trampoline and still loads to spare.

Theirs is about 1/3 larger again, but no possibility to subdivide and build on.

I think it also depends on the area. A large garden in an inner city or suburb may not command as much as a large garden in the country which could be used as a paddock area perhaps.

It depends entirely on the development rights in the local area. We live in a small market town in a 5 year old home, we have a large garden even by 1950's standards, not everyone on the estate as a lucky as us don't get me wrong, but there wasn't a great deal of difference between the price of our home and similar properties despite the extra land. (The exact same property to ours but literally 10 seconds from my front door has only 1.5 spaces and a postage stamp for a front garden, and a back garden that's roughly the same size as our kitchen. By contrast ours has 3.5 spaces plus a garden double the size at the front, and we have could put our entire home's foot print into the back garden twice over. It sold 3 months after we bought ours for iirc £12,000 more than we paid for ours !!! )

I think it also depends on the type of home, if it's a townhouse aimed at young professionals with no kids they're probably not going to want a massive garden beyond maybe some room for a barbecue, detached family homes with no garden though I would suspect are likely to loose value because of it.

Hi When I started working with property around 18 years ago I thought garden size on a family home would make a difference but over the years it's seemed to prove my thoughts wrong,

people only seem to want to have a small easily managed garden to sit in , have a bbq and enjoy the sunshine , they do not want to spend all their downtime tending it and mowing grass , children spend time on iPads and gaming , the world has changed and outside space as personal garden space is less sought after.
However a family with a dog or two might prefer a reasonable sized garden.

That's my thoughts kingjoffrey. People just want room for a BBQ and don't want loads of maintenance.

I can't see that the bit of extra garden would add a huge amount to the estate agent's valuation but just wasn't sure.

Agree totally depends on area. Around here land is valuable and most houses have teeny tiny gardens so corner plots etc are very desirable.

*Our garden is probably too big for us, plenty big enough to fit an extension if required, big double garage, enough lawn for a big swing set and trampoline and still loads to spare.

Theirs is about 1/3 larger again, but no possibility to subdivide and build on.*

See if you can get a developer interested in knocking both down and building 5 houses then you can move elsewhere to a smaller garden

I think it really depends on the area, we just sold our garden flat (so may be different) with a smallish/medium front garden and a 70ft back garden, driveway etc, and it sold for 550,000 (on for a little while, had to drop price) yet a first floor flat on the same st with no garden, same size, same bedroom, same high standard finish sold for more, apparently in this area people don't always want a high maintenance garden, but that is like I said for a flat. A more family geared area with houses from what we've seen a garden size doesn't seem to change the price all that much as long as there is a garden!

I think a large manicured garden can put some people off, unless they are keen gardeners. However, if the space means the house could be easily extended (or even another house built) then it will add to the value. My parents house had an acre of garden and some potential buyers almost shuddered and muttered about the work involved!
Funnily enough I always wanted a large garden (but mine is medium sized), now I am older I am quite glad it is easily managed, so it's really horses for courses.

I live in an area where yuppies tend to move in from city centre flats (guilty as charged) and who are happy with ANY garden space. So the teeny cramped gardens near the high street don't hold much sway against the period features more common there and the marginally better access to transport/Costa.

Then, as I'm informed by neighbours, they move out to the further away streets like mine later when they have kids and want some actual running space. We were in the position to skip option A and went straight for the house with a bigger garden - lawn, decking, trees, sizeable shed and second patio. (Plus DFiance's mum worked for the council, and could tell us about all the complaints of people living on the roads that looked charming but were a bit of a nightmare to live in).

I do think perhaps location matters.
I live in a rural village and feel our garden is small, but I judge small by I can't get a few alpacas on there! We've a drive big enough for 5 cars, room to extend, full size goal with room to kick a ball about, dog run, catio (run for the cats) and have multiple seating areas to follow the sun. The whole plot is probably about half an acre.
We'd pay a heck of a lot more to get the same house on a bigger plot

I agree that it must depend on area. Here, a medium / large sized garden will ALWAYS command a premium over a smaller garden. I suppose it's probably due to being a family area - people want plenty of space for football nets / trampolines / BBQs / socialising areas and for people without children, they want a big enough garden so the noise of all those with children etc doesn't disturb them .

I also think with the trend for open plan living / bifolds & lots of glass / bringing the outdoors in etc, people are prepared to pay more for decent gardens.

I think it becomes an even bigger factor as houses get more expensive - probably to do with privacy. If you're paying say £1m for a house, i imagine you'd be willing to pay a hefty premium to make sure you had a big garden to ensure you weren't overlooked / had privacy.

This depends on too many different factors. As a general rule though the bigger the plot of land the higher the price. How much higher is dependant. I'd ask some agents for a valuation.

I'd also disagree with some previous posts and saying all things being equal folks will normally plump for the bigger plot, unless the smaller plot comes with enough of a discount in comparison to make it worth while

I went to view two houses on the same street recently (All semis). Pretty identical except one house had a much larger back garden. Smaller garden was listed at £200,000 Larger garden was listed at £210,000 - both listed using the same estate agent. Both sold almost instantly.

There may have been other factors involved like the seller's expectations but it's as close as an answer as I can give with what I know about the houses.

Was just coming in to say £10,000 that's the premium we paid worth every penny

As others have said, it all seems to depend. Over time I've seen garden size matter less and less. Newbuilds seem to have more ensuites than garden. Busy people, everyone works, etc.

I also think there are two different questions being answered here.

The first one is a small plot still desirable, the answer is of course yes.
The second one, which is what you asked, which is what's the price differential.

Very few people would expect to pay the same price for a smaller plot than the house next door with a larger plot, even if they are happy with a smaller plot. They will expect it to cost less.

I cant give you specific advice with regard to price but i can tell you that my house was pretty big with a small garden. Almost everyone who viewed it and rejected it did so because if the size of the garden. We reduced the price and it sold.

We are currently selling our house. It has a small garden (but larger than some new builds. À lot of our viewers have commented negatively on the size of the garden, especially if they have children or dogs.

It depends on the location. In a town/city centre where space is limited even a yard with a bit of grass will attract people. Also retired people (not elderly retired) often like gardening as a hobby so could make a difference