How much value does a garden add to a property?

[Didimum]

Thinking ahead to remortgaging (next year). I was wondering if anyone had any experience or an educated guess as to what % increase you can expect on a property by adding a garden that previously didn’t have one.

We bought the house last year – a family home. The ‘back garden’ was a fully concreted space/drive way with a dilapidated double garage (unusable), open to the road. For this reason, the house struggled to sell. It sat on the market for a year and was lowered in asking price twice. It last had been sold in 1970. We turned the ‘driveway’ into a proper landscaped garden by walling it off from the road and also retained a driveway. The garden is around 900sq ft. We got rid of the garage, but do have both a loft, cellar and added garden storage.

Any ideas? Thanks!

I’m sure you’ve made it a lot more saleable which will make a difference to you at the time you decide to move. Plus you are able to enjoy it now! However I doubt it will make much difference for a remortgage value as the land is the land and that hasn’t changed.

I’m finding it odd people saying lenders don’t come to re-value with mortgages as we’ve had them out a couple of times in the past to look at improvements (renovations one time, a garden room, a friend had them round when they did a loft conversion). Anyway, perhaps lenders differ.

We finished it at the tail end of summer last year, so definitely looking forward to all the BBQs this year!!

Can you post before and after pics?

You're right (sometimes a very large garden can decrease the value of a house- as many people regard it as just making work, and/or an expense to maintain) or at the very least, make it slower to sell as you have to wait for someone who really wants a larger plot. In your case, though it is different, if you retain enough parking for the size of the house, I'd imagine it would increase the value.
These days most people use their garage for storage, or as a utility room, so that could be an issue if the house doesn't have much storage or kitchen space.

There’s a difference between ‘value’ to a mortgage lender and the added ‘value’ that would make a prospective purchaser pay more to buy the house. The former is pretty much based on land value and soundness of structure, not on aesthetics.

Thanks for your response. Yes, we thought carefully about all the things you mention before deciding to go ahead, as it was such a huge undertaking.

Yes, we retained the same amount of parking, and the house does have a separate utility room, two reception rooms and a dry cellar, ample storage. As I say, we’re not looking to move so perhaps it will have to remain a mystery what sort of value it adds!

Hard to say as some people would prefer a driveway (not me). It sounds like you did some costly work, so hopefully those costs would be recovered.

We retained a driveway, it’s just in a different place.

There “a driveway” and then there’s ample parking though which it sounds like you no longer have.

An EA will give you a figure in 5 minutes to settle the issue.

I think you really really want it to be 20 percent or in that range, so I wish you luck and hope you get that valuation . And yes it does commonly repeat that.

I just think there are many other factors that impact it. And for info it says a double garage adds 20 percent. So removing it removes 20 percent.

hence it could be a wash, and the inflation in value down to the market.

Honestly I don't think this will have made any real difference to the value. Agree with others, that this is one of those things that might increase saleability but not make a huge difference in value. In my experience there's a hell of a lot of ways you can spend plenty of money on a house that simply don't increase value. As I recall when I last remortgaged, they would have charged me extra for sending a valuer out to the house. I can see if you are right at an LTV boundary it really matters but I think you might be disappointed.

A tiny garden on a tiny flat added 10k value, a slightly larger garden on a 1 bed flat added 15-20k. I’d assume if it’s nicely done out round my way (se) it would add at least 30k.

The driveway is the same capacity as it was before, as we just moved its location. We also removed the sharp incline of it so it’s now safer and easier to park.

Not at all. 10% would be great and allow down to the next LTV rung, plus whatever the general increase over time is.

‘Up to’ 20% was just the only data I could find on size/shape/attractiveness of garden in general, hence why I mention it, and I take great notice of ‘up to’, as it could fall way below that.

Garages do not make a difference in this area as the houses do not have garages (conservation area, which is the sought after area of town), so after researching that we felt comfortable in getting rid. For a large family house a garden is a must. A garage is a bonus.

In London estate agents didn't really add anything for the garden- they valued based on the square footage of the house only and compared against local sales. And didn't take much account of the furnishing either, I was quite frustrated with them. Obviously the garden has some value but I guess you'll mainly see that at the point of offer anyway, as otherwise its all just theoretical value.

Yes, being at edge of the LTV boundary is accurate, hence my interest in if anyone had specific experience, which I’ve yet to find. I respectfully disagree that a gardens don’t add value to a large family houses, it’s just a question of how much. I’d be perfectly happy even with 5% increase, nothing crazy.

That’s very different to my experience of moving around south London. Garden flats went for a good £50k more on a 2 bed.

Theoretical is all I’m after really as we aren’t moving.

This was a south London house valuation, and they were comparing our terraced house with terraced houses sold in neighboring streets when reaching a value. I suppose realistically most of the houses had similar sized gardens so maybe they were just discounting it as a factor and valuing on the house square footage. But in your scenario they might actually have suggested a lower valuation as you'd technically have lost the garage square footage, hard to tell.

Ah I see. Yes, I found the same with terraced house gardens elsewhere in south east.

The garage wasn’t included in the house’s original square footage. Not sure why. They included the cellar, but not the loft – not sure lofts are ever included though.

This is such a ridiculous thread!

OP, nobody can give you a sensible answer. It depends on so many factors that are specific to your house/area.

do buyers in your area mostly have kids

do most other houses have gardens - if so bigger than this? Smaller?

are buyers in your area generally willing to do work themselves, or do they value having it already done

might there be buyers who would have preferred the garage (unusable, but provided a precedent to knock it down and replace, which is now gone)

how have you done the new garden, will it appeal to lots of people or not

You need to ask an estate agent who knows your local market. Even then, it will be hard to say whether any changes in value are due to the garden or just market changes.

This whole thread is like debating how long is a piece of string - when you’re the one with the string…

As has been pointed out, for a mortgage valuation it is not likely to add anything. We remortgaged recently and had valuations done by 2 banks. Both desktop. They differed a lot though.
It will make it more attractive to buyers and you could sell for more, but the mortgage lender won't be interested in that.

I would think by roughly the cost of landscaping the garden if all the other houses have gardens. Where I am everyone has a garden, some are landscaped, some are mature and some are overgrown. I don't think there's much difference in sale price. Maybe a few thousand more for the ones with nice gardens, but they'll generally be in better decorative order too. It's square footage and location that matter to most.

It’s served me quite well, thanks, hearing all the different opinions. It’s been very interesting. I was hoping to find someone who may have had experience of doing similar – which is hardly ‘ridiculous’ in an internet forum under the discuss of property.

As it’s my thread and I’ve found it very useful, you’re not required to find it ‘ridiculous’ or not.

That’s interesting that the desktop valuations differed so much.