North facing garden

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Would a property with a north facing garden put you off buying it?

If the house had all or most of the things I was most interested in in a house such as location, room sizes and layout, outdoor space generally , style; and getting all of that with a south facing garden was impossible / out of budget, then no. It isn’t the most important feature for me.

Most people have to compromise somewhere and unless your house is also a bit niche or unusual generally, you’ll always find a buyer who thinks other features of your house are more important to them than the garden aspect, if they know they can’t afford absolutely everything they might want.

No as I'm the only one in my household who likes the sun, so everyone else might join me in the garden while I sit in the sunny corner. Currently in South facing and no one else will come out of the house with me.

Depends how long it was really, which rooms faced South, whether there was anywhere to sit in the front garden. A long north facing garden will have sun at the bottom of it.

A small north facing garden would. A large one, not so much. Our back garden is south facing, but we have a high row of trees to the west, meaning it doesn't get as much sun as it could. Orientation isn't everything. Our north facing front garden is small and really mossy though. I wouldn't want that at the back.

Nope! We have north facing garden. But we have a long lounge that runs front to back of the house and is triple aspect, so gets tons of sun. The garden is also large (wide and long), so gets plenty of sun, as does the front garden. All 4 bedrooms get some sun as they have windows on the ends of the house or the front. So it's only the kitchen, bathroom and shower room that get no direct sun. I never understand why people are so obsessed with a south facing garden....

I think most people will view the property as a whole, maybe a keen gardener might turn down a north facing garden but at the same time they would have the knowledge to plant the plants that thrive in partial shade rather than full sun.

If your back garden faces North then the front of the house faces South and that means lots of light coming in the front windows.

It would put me off unless it was very long. I currently have a SE facing garden and really miss having the sun in the evenings after a day at work.

I've got a lovely, small North facing garden, sun at the back in the morning, sun near the house in the evening. One side very sunny, the other side shady. I tailor the plants to suit the light.

We are buying a north facing garden, we're told there's a sunny spot at the bottom. We've had a large south facing garden and it got too hot in summer so looking forward to the shade.

No. My last house was north facing and my current is south west facing. Due to the position of the house and nothing on the right hand side, we had sunshine until 6pm each day.

North facing is ok but I wouldn't have an east facing property again.

I had a north facing garden and absolutely hated it

Have north facing now about 70 to 80 ft but narrow. Loads of sun and friends who are sun worshippers have hidden from it in our garden last summer! Can have breakfast on patio without burning and go further down and lay in sun or nap on egg chair at end of garden. Quite looking forward to the warm weather and getting out there again. As pp have said, if its a decent size garden then go for it!

Depends on layout and length of garden. But definitely off putting for me.

We have a tiny north facing garden and I love it!! After having a bigger directly south facing garden in the last house this one is a relief!! The previous one was unusable in the summer.

Not at all, ours is North facing and we get lovely sun at the front in the bay windows.
Also i was out in the garden at lunch time and was in the sun the bottom third of the garden. In the middle of summer it's only the patio that doesn't get sun at all.
So i think it all depends on how you want to use the garden and the shape and surrounding houses. If it's all bungalows or you have a ground floor extension and a long garden that slopes uphill that's a lot better than 3 story town houses in a terrace with a short garden for someone who loves gardening and chilling outside.
Good luck with the decision!

Depends completely on the garden.
We have a north facing garden but because it is longish and the house barely casts any shadow, there's always sun on part of it until 8pm. The lounge at the front of the house gets lots of sun as does the front garden (everything withers and dies!)
We had a small north facing garden at our previous house which was damp and mossy all year round.
It wasn't something I really considered when viewing but we did have some people refuse to even view our house as the garden was north facing.

Yes

I have one now and never would again - unless the north facing back garden is very long/large/no high trees, or the front garden is private enough to use

Boggy lawn
Can see the sun but not sit in it so not t as many opportunities to be outside

No. I have refused to view otherwise perfect houses with north facing gardens and north facing family spaces. Life is too short to live in dark sunless rooms.

It really depends on the house. What surrounds the garden (lots if buildings? Or open?)

We have north facing (always said I didn't want one. I even posted on here asking for opinions like yourself)

Our garden is very very wide, but not that long.

The summer at least 3/4 was in sunshine all day. (Without actually shining directly into the house, which was a bonus as it didn't heat the house up).
The patio has sun morning and evening, but shaded during the day (perfect)
The entire grassy area was sunshine.

Winter is dark 98%

But we have huge windows to the front of our house and fields surrounding, so we get loads of light into the house from the front and side.

Overall I love our n facing garden. However hated my childhood n facing garden. (surrounded by houses) which was utterly dark and depressing all year round. (not many windows in that house)

It is very definitely a compromise. I have one and if we decide to move it's definitely something we would want to avoid. That said, the trade off at the time was worth it. Right now, with pandemic I might make different choices, but these things are not static.

Our south west facing garden gets no sun for 4 months of the year due to buildings around. It makes for a long winter.

Yes it would put me off. We are looking to buy and I've seen a couple of really good houses on rightmove and am not interested in viewing them because of the lack of sun.

I think it depends on the garden and how long it is. I wouldn't like to live in a house with a North facing garden that got no sun, but if its long and I gets sun at the end that wouldn't be a problem.

Ours is South Facing and its like a suntrap, it gets too hot sometimes in the Summer.

Totally depends on what’s around it. Our garden faces due south but it’s very wide and the usable lawn is not hugely deep with large fir trees shading one half. So while it’s sunny overall, large swathes end up shaded for part of the day.

On the other hand, we have a north facing courtyard at the back, and despite having buildings on 3 sides, it’s a total suntrap in the evenings as the west aspect is wide open.

It definitely wouldn’t put me off if everything else is right.

(I should add our layout is not entirely typical, so we use both back and front gardens equally)