Does astroturf put you off?

[GingerBeverage]

If you're looking at family houses, would astroturf (fake grass) put you off viewing/buying?

I'm seeing it a lot in city terraces and semis these days. There seems to be a resurgence from being out of fashion decades ago.

I wouldn't mind it. A friend has it in her small garden and she vacuums it once a week! 😂

It wouldn’t be a deal breaker but I’d factor the cost of removal into my budget when making an offer.

Yes! As big as the full concrete back gardens I keep seeing too

No, it wouldn't put me off viewing or buying.

I'd just factor in needing to replace it with real lawn.

I'd put it on one of the free sites & hope it saves someone some money & saves more being bought.

It never looks real, no matter how expensive it is!

Yes, our neighbour has artificial grass and it looks so fake, although it does make me laugh when I see him hoovering it! But if it was easy to rip up and put real grass down then it wouldn't be a deal breaker.

It would put me off as the cost to pull it up and replace whatever is underneath with earth and then lay a lawn could be quite a lot, and as a pp said, you don't know what it is hiding. I also hate how bad they are for the environment and for wildlife. It would be a dealbreaker for me unless a: the rest of the house was perfect and b: I could reduce the price enough to justify the cost of replacing it with soil and plants.

Horrible.

I would factor in the hassle of removing it.

I would prefer gravel, paving or concrete as at least there isn't any pretence that the owners don't like gardening.

@cloudtree

Yes. Its awful stuff, cheap and tacky looking and horrendous for the environment. I judge I'm afraid.

Hate the stuff, polluting the soil and watercourses with micro plastics. Hard pass!

As well as the aesthetic and plastic pollutions issues, I’d like to know what the associated impact on land drainage is. But then I’m a flood risk management engineer.

Yes, disgusting

Yes, totally yucky particularly if they had dogs weeing on it! Go on any of the fb cleaning pages and there's always someone swabbing theirs down with dettol - double yuck. Factor in ripping it up and having real grass - no wonder everywhere floods these days with plastic and concrete gardens.

Yes, it’s awful.

Yes, but not a deal breaker if the rest of the house was perfect. I would factor the removal into my offer

It would depend on the garden.

A whole, large, level lawn covered with it - It'd put me off and I'd want to factor in it's removal and returfing.

Used to cover a steep slope, or in a small garden that's overshadowed by a large tree canopy where lawn is unlikely to successfully grow- probably not so bad.

We have a small patch of astoturf (over existing concrete) for our dog to wee and poo on, its only about 2*5 m in a large garden and in a separate area to the lawn, so I'd be surprised if that put people off.

Yes
Absolutely grim and terrible to pull up a lawn and cover with plastic!!!

Yes, it would be one of the biggest turn offs for me in buying a property.

We don't like it but still viewed a couple of houses with it where they also had beds, trees etc. We did avoid a house where the garden was just patio and an expanse of AstroTurf though, despite it being "immaculate".

Vie stuff laid by lazy people who don’t care about the environment. It’s all well and good to say “our garden has / is surrounded by other greenery” is shortsighted. If everyone replaced lawn with plastic you couldn’t say “it’s ok as others are handling it” plus diversity is needed, grass and lawns are needed.

It might not put me off viewing but it would affect offer price, I’d want the cost of ripping it up and replacing factored in.

It puts me right off. Looks tacky as hell and I'd need to get rid of it.

Astroturf is ugly plastic carpet, why would you want that anywhere near your home?

And more to the point it's an environmental atrocity.

Gardens are outdoors. Fill them with nature!

Yes, massively.

@LastStarfighter

It would put me off. It might not prevent me from buying, but I would consciously have to try to see past it, like hideous decoration or a dilapidated kitchen.

Yes, this. They're so hideous.

No, as I have a small garden and 3 dogs, and the lawn wasn’t even big enough to turn a mower round on easily. As per PP I would want a natural lawn in a large garden, but if it was a similar size to mine it would be an advantage.

We bought a house recently, and didn't realise the lawn was Astroturf until we moved in. I had a very surprising and nasty moment: "Ooooh .... you know what? This grass is plastic!" To make things worse, it's old, failing Astroturf, so lots of weeds get through it. It's certainly a negative, and it would have been off-putting if we'd known.

It wouldn't put me off viewing or buying if I liked the house but it wouldn't be a selling point, it's awful stuff.