Is paving the front garden to park 2nd car a good idea?

[myfaceismyown]

Please help DH and I to decide as we have a quandry.
We have a house set back from the road with a driveway long enough for a people carrier and a little more wiggle room. Any visitors park on the road outside the house. Several times their wing mirror on the pavement side has been kicked off. Even footprints left on the passenger window. It has happened to our next door neighbour's visitors also. One vandal threw their wing mirror right over the gate into their back garden! I have no idea why as where they park causes no inconvenience to anyone. So my neighbour and the people opposite, paved over their front gardens to provide parking for a 2nd car. Our front garden is very pretty with well established plants. Roses, fushias daffodils, snowdrops, and a lot of self seeded native bluebells just coming out now ready for Easter. My question to you, dear Mumsnetters, is this. If you were buying a house, would you prefer a pretty front garden and a drive for 1 large car, or a bare garden with room for 2 cars?
Genuine question as DH and I do not want to cause an issue further down the line by paving over the garden for when we eventually come to sell.
Any thoughts gratefully received.

I think I’d go for the pretty front garden every time. An actual front garden is also much better for the environment.

Being totally honest if there were repeated instances of vandalism and anti social behaviour around something as routine as residents or visitors parking along the road, I’d be looking at moving instead of investing more money in the property by way of significant works.

Appreciate I don’t know your circumstances, but that would be a big push factor for me.

@FirstFallopians we have been here a long time. It is a cut through road for a lot of people, otherwise pretty quiet and just residential. If you looked at where I am you would think how lovely, no one parks on the road! - Just as we did, not knowing why. We do have a plan to move that relies on DH's work and my SEN son finishing college. Fortunately I can WFH anywhere.

Yeah, if cars on the road are repeatedly having their wing mirrors and windows kicked, I’d not feel confident they’d be much safer on a drive.

If I was buying I’d prefer the pretty garden plus drive for one car. If as you say the road looks quiet and nice, I probably wouldn’t worry about parking on the road and would think I could always convert it myself if I wanted to.

Even if someone really really would prefer a drive for 2 cars, they can see they could always convert it themselves - it’s not a dealbreaker if it’s changeable. And kerb appeal out front will def help. Change it if you want it for yourself, but I’m not convinced it would make it a selling point.

I would leave the decision to the next people who buy your house and leave it as it is for now.

Are you sure your visitors aren’t parking in a way that irritates others such as having half the car on the pavement and half on the road or parking opposite peoples drives so it’s hard for them to get in & out? The petty vandalism seems so strange otherwise.

Do you have permit parking? Where I used to live you could get up to 3 permits but if you had a drive you were only entitled to 1 (so if your drive couldn't accommodate 2 cars you'd have less parking). Would you need to apply to drop the kerb? If you don't then it's not really considered a driveway, don't know if you're more/less likely to get permission for 1 or 2 (I've never done this but worth investigating). What are your needs? Do you need 2 cars, if yes then only doing 1 space seems daft. It will depend on the type of house and your circumstances. When I lived in a city and we both walked to work we only own one car. Not we're rural and have kids and we commute so we have two cars. I'd do what you need to do for you. Even though I agree with PP that I love a garden and hate when they're fully paved (just looks like a carpark) you need to be practical.

I would just do what you want, I wouldn't be thinking about what the next owners would want, you don't know who will buy the house, they may have no cars or they could have three. Do you need extra parking for yourself, also consider dropped kerbs if you decide to go ahead, you may need that also, you are not legally allowed to drive over a raised kerb, though obviously people do.

Honestly - and we are buying at the moment and have looked at a lot of houses - whether the front garden is garden or parking is pretty low down the list of considerations. And never the deciding factor on a house.
Pretty front garden is nice. More parking is also nice. But if you can't have both, you can't have both.
Can you pave it in small pavers that are more easily removed? And that drain water better? Could you leave a small amount of ground round the edges and along the house so you can have some greenery rather than none? But go for your parking space, it sounds like you need it and it won't matter a jot when you come to sell.

Keep the pretty garden. If the next people want to rip it out for parking, let them do it.

Garden every time. It sounds lovely . Don’t destroy it. You already have one parking space and parking another car doesn’t seem to be problematic. Yobs will walk up a driveway if they feel determined enough.
Even the tiniest bit of garden space provides sanctuary to birds and animals, as well as lowers the temperature

I am sorry you live in such a canal ridden area ... it sounds awful to be honest. If it were me I would be leaving the garden be and planning a move!

Canal!!! ... vandal ridden!

Are your guests parking on the pavement? If so, tell them not to be knobs and stop blocking pedestrian access on the pavement.

Bear in mind that paving over your front garden can sometimes need planning permission depending on how much paving there is and what you are paving it with, drainage etc.

I'd be getting ring doorbell cameras and working who it is vandalising the cars. It must be someone local for the same thing to keep happening.

Parking would be my preference, especially if my / my family's property is being damaged.

I would save the money and focus on moving, having lived in houses where we've needed to park in the street before I can't say your recollections resonate with me, and I'd want to be out of there!

I hate paved over front gardens. It really makes streets look miserable.

How much front garden do you have? We gravelled ours and it's wide enough to park 2 cars in front very comfortably, they can reverse back onto the driveway and drive out forward facing onto what is a busy road at school run times so it works very well for us. Also parking in a driveway off the road helps lower insurance.
WRT the phantom car vandaliser, does nothing show on a Ring Doorbell or similar, I think id be trying to get evidence of who is doing it?

Thank you for your responses. The pretty garden and drive was part of the reason we bought this house. It was well established when we moved here and we have maintained and added flowers to it over the years. As to my visitors, No they do not park on the pavement. just on the road. The houses are detached and have plenty of space to park outside without blocking the opposite drive. We have one car, so it would be just for friends and family. Generally no one else parks on the road as they have either paved/gravelled/hard surfaced the front or do what we currently do. Since the last "event" at New Year my guests park on a little road a couple of houses down and have been fine there. That road just has a few houses on it and parkland.
@CrotchetyQuaver @WonderingWanda Big front garden, and we have discussed gravel with a flower border as an option. My neighbour opposite (fully concreted over the front lawn last year) does have a camera and we did see a shadowy figure at 2 am, but it was not clear enough to make out who it was unfortunately. The person just seemed to stumble into the wing mirror then kick at it in anger! From the stumbling we think they may have been either drunk or high. I have spoken to the police and my neighbour showed her recording but it was not sufficient evidence. Left hand side neighbour has very recently installed a Ring and security light. Having discussed this further with DH if we get a Ring we would then have to set up a "sting" but not sure we want to sacrifice my DD's car intentionally when she visits!

Voting to keep your pretty garden. Its a pleasure to you and will be a kerb appeal asset when you sell. And it is much better for birds. Future owners will have the option to change. It sounds as though the damage to wing mirror etc was accidental rather than deliberate vandalism. If you do go for more parking on your front garden, could you consider gravel rather than paving, as it is better for the environment - it drains better and avoids surface run-off of water. It may mean getting planning permission.

Keep your garden. There's no guarantee that vandals won't just come up your drive to vandalise your car if they are so inclined (although I suppose there's always the chance that they might vandalise your garden instead, although they haven't up to now).

But a nice front garden is, I think, much better all round. For the environment, for making the house look like a home, not an HMO. What happens if parkers on the road turn their wing mirrors in when they leave the car - do they still get yanked at? Because in that case I'd say that a dashcam, and a sign saying that there is a dashcam recording, might help stop some of it.

Pretty front garden. Every. Time.

This is why people pay more to live on roads with no through traffic.

Because generally the amount of vandalism/damage to property will be a function of how many people pass along the road.If there are pubs nearby then that can also increase the chances of people stumbling out and causing noise and damage late at night.

If you are going to move I would probably leave your garden as is. Let the new people decide what is more important to them. Nice garden or safe car.