South facing / north facing in small courtyard garden

[Nubnut]

Trying to buy a house, and arguing about orientation with my partner.
DP thinks that it doesn’t matter if a small garden (small courtyard) is north or south facing because it’s so small and on a terrace so surrounded by other houses that it won’t get any sun anyway.
My understanding is that you’re going to get sun at dinner time with a south west facing courtyard, even if it’s built up around it.
Could anyone advise? Thank you

I’m not sure but would view on a sunny day to find out.

Depends on the height of the buildings. Only in summer probably when the sun is high enough in the sky for the buildings not to matter. North facing would be worse though. If south facing you'll get a bit more sun for a bit more of the year.
I love in a bungalow that is north facing. In late autumn, the whole of winter and early spring i get no sun at all on the back of the house or the patio. Patio is about 5 meters deep. Right now, I still have a good 2 meters still in shade at the back of the house. By high summer I'll get a little bit of sunshine on the back of the house that will actually enter the windows by about a foot at either end of the day. I actually prefer this because it keeps the kitchen really cool in summer. But if I was surrounded by taller buildings I think I would only get sunshine when the sun was directly overhead in summer.

If sunshine is important to you and the front of the house doesn't have a garden that is less overshadowed by other houses that you'd be happy to use instead, then I think orientation matters.

You could also ask the seller.

I would say there's a good chance you'll get some sun in a SW facing garden, very unlikely to get any in a NF later in the afternoon.

I'd definitely check it out first though, as PP suggested.

It depends on other properties and walls. Obviously larger, we have a north facing garden, the sun creeps through the east side of property and that boundary has sun until about noon and there's sun on the top third all day. The west bottom third does get soon but not continually.

If you've already looked at properties and really interested, can you ask agent is there's any change of another viewing from anytime now until end of day, just to look at the garden if that's the dealbreaker.

Depends on time of year. I have a 40ft garden that faces north. Looking at it now, 75% is in full sun because the sun is high enough in the sky and I don't have buildings or trees blocking it on the east and west sides. If it was early January I get no sun at all in the garden (still is lovely though). The advantage is as I get minimal sun directly in the house at the back, so even though the whole back wall is glass and I have two big skylights it never overheats.

We have a small yard with brick wall surround (need to tiptoe to peer over, to give an idea of height) and it's south facing and is an absolute sun-trap. I know others with north-facing yards with same setup that get very little sun. It definitely makes a difference.

Thanks this is really helpful.

Thanks everyone, I’m so glad I asked. We’ve arranged another viewing at 7pm on Monday!
I think it’s going to be a no from me for this house for this reason.