Small Garden with kids?

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We're relocating and downsizing to reduce our mortgage. For our new budget we can either get a house that needs no updating (we're scared by a 2 year house renovation) but a small garden or a house that will need updating but a larger garden.

Initially we are drawn to the house that's all done but I'm wondering if the small garden will bother us? We currently have a big garden which the kids love but we resend the work it needs. Our DC are 3y & 5y.

Children can have fun whatever the size of the garden. Do you have access nearby to other outdoor spaces? I’d go with the smaller garden if it causes you less stress re renovation.

We currently have a large garden but are planning to buy a house with a small garden. We use the patio area of our current large garden in the summer a lot. But the rest of it (lawn, plants) just takes maintenance and DD doesn't really use it.
I think if you're near parks with a small garden that's probably more important. Also the direction the garden faces is pretty important with a small garden - somewhere to sit in the sun / dappled shade with a cup of tea is a treat.

How small is small? Round here (London) there are lots of houses with small gardens (usually 5m x 5m ish) with young families living happily there. But there are good parks very nearby which makes a big difference.

I've always gone for a bigger garden and done up the house over a year or two. Even did one house myself.
Kids love being able to play in the garden in fine weather. If you've the space and can afford it they love things like a sandpit, small trampoline, swing set, climbing frame, space hopper, paddling pool.

The beauty of a larger garden is that the children can play out there unsupervised for longer without getting bored.
Small gardens might mean complaining noise freak neighbours, and less room for things like swings/trampoline, might work if there's a park nearby where they can let off steam, but you'd probably want to take them there.
I moved from a tiny garden to a fairly large one when my DDs were 4 and 5.

Thanks everyone. We currently have a very large garden and the kids do love it. The house we prefer is split level with small patches of lawn but not much room for trampoline etc like we have now.

We did up our current house ourselves but it nearly broke us...

The area we are moving to is rural with lots of ourdoors space right on the door step.

Yes my children do play out a lot now unsupervised. They would still be able to play out by themselves it's just not the mass lawn expanse they are used to!

It's all about location for me - so I'd be willing to make compromises on garden size so that we could be closer to better schools / transport / community hub etc

Depends on your kids and how big a renovation you're talking!
My eldest wouldn't fuss with a small garden, happy with a patio seating and if possible space for a trampoline. Youngest needs expanse for football!
House Reno I would do if it's things like updating dated bathrooms kitchens wallpaper etc, not if it involved rewiring replumbing and knocking walls down!

We make great use of our garden and are moving to a house with an even bigger one for the 3 kids. We're thinking if we have a climbing frame, swings, slide, trampoline, football goal, basketball hoops etc then they can have friends around a lot and be outside in the fresh air and not under our feet.

We didn't have more than a yard for years as this was the norm in the area we lived in. When we moved back to the Midlands we were so excited to get a house with a large garden but it became such a burden spending every weekend weeding and mowing. I think it depends if you enjoy doing those things, for us it just took up valuable time we could of been doing other things and it was a bit of a chore. We're in the process of buying our first house and have bought one with a reasonable garden that's mainly paved and we cant wait to no have to mow the kids are just happy to be outside and there's plenty of parks around