Thinking of rejecting a house due to aspect? Don't!

[KhakiCat]

Hi all,

Just sharing something.

I had a dilemma when buying the house I've now been 7 months in at the end of 2024.

It ticked most of the boxes and the minor compromises were things I could (and have since) change.

The major compromise was the thing I can't change - the orientation. I really wanted a South or West facing garden/kitchen and was so disappointed this house has a North-East facing garden/kitchen.

Buildings and trees around it are also so positioned that direct sunlight doesn't hit the windows at all in winter (I viewed in October so it was dark most of the time outside and no sun in the garden).

Someone on here advised me that come summer, I would come to love having a cooler house and the ability to sit out in my garden all day without burning up.

I didn't believe it at the time, but went ahead and completed in December; it was dark and the garden got NO direct sunlight, so I thought I was going to have to get used to a dark house and sell in 5 years.

I was totally wrong. By end Feb, the garden started getting morning sun and the morning sun in the kitchen and bathroom is a wonderful way to wake up and have my coffee.

I also like finishing work and sitting in the still-sunny living room, and the orange glow I can enjoy all evening (I spend most of the evening in this room) rather than darkness had it been east-facing.

But the absolute best thing is that my house is never unbearably hot, especially compared to my previous, SE-S-SW-facing new build. I enjoy sun until late evening at the bottom of the garden and sit in a nice shady patio from lunch time (it does get morning sun).

It is actually perfect and I just wanted to share because it was such a difficult compromise for me - I just hope this helps someone else who might be thinking of dismissing a house due to similar reasons!

I'm in London for context - it is boiling these days and will only get worse with climate change.

So huge thanks to whoever gave me that advice!

We bought off plan and could have had our pick. Deliberately chose a NE facing garden and love it.

We get morning sun in the breakfast room and on the patio next to the house, and evening sun on the patio at the bottom of the garden, while our house stays nice and cool all day (the big windows are on the back of the house). Still plenty of light in winter because of the size of windows.

We also viewed the ‘perfect’ house apart from N facing garden. I was so uncertain whether to proceed but it ticked every other box. Four years later and our house is always cool, dogs can sit outside on the shady grass and my family love to come over on the hot days to get away from their full length glass new builds.

But in the summer when the sun is high, you’re obviously going to get a lot of sun still?

my old house was NW facing. It had sun all day in different parts of the garden. I had sun until it went down around 9pm in the summer

current house NE facing garden. Sun all day in different parts of the garden but sets at the front of the house so I lose the sun by 7pm in the summer which is fine.

it’s ideal for me because there are always areas of shade and areas of sun in the garden which is great for the kids and dog.

Ours is the same The patio is sunny most of the day until 7ish.
Our old house also had a north facing garden and when we sold we had buyers refuse to even view the house when they found out the garden was north facing!
Similarly I had a friend who would look at houses on Rightmove/street view and rule them out for the same reason. Bonkers!

It seems there’s a whole difference in different north facing gardens. I’ve just double checked mine after reading this thread, and it’s definitely north east. But we have the sun all day over pretty much the whole of the garden, til 6.30ish when we start getting a bit of shade on one side. We are in the south east, and don’t have houses on one side or the end. I actually wanted a bit of shade for the kids and dog, so even though we have trees, have had to buy parasols etc to create some

Are you sure you're checking facing the right way? North facing gardens will always be in the shade of their own house by the afternoon. I get shade creeping over from the side in the evening too, but mine faces South.

My house faces East (front) to west (back) and there isn’t a time of day where it’s not too hot somewhere at the moment. I like the idea of north to south, with the back garden being south but there is still a part of the house that doesn’t get the full sun.

My house is east west, my bedroom is far too hot because it’s west facing. The other disadvantage is solar panels aren’t advised as no south facing roof

Not necessarily. Ours is definitely north facing but we have a single storey extension which means the patio is set a few metres away from the 2 storey part of the house. We don’t get the shade of the house until 6.30ish and even then it’s only in one side,
it depends on height of the house, length of the garden etc. Not all north facing gardens will be in the shade of the house.

@IndieRocknRolloh that’s interesting, we have a single story extension also. Perhaps thats why.

I have a north facing garden. In summer it gets sun all day as there’s nothing blocking it east to west. In winter it’s true there d ni dun in my garden but I don’t sit out then, thought I d perfectly pleasant if I wanted to..But even in high summer the sun doesn’t t shine into the house. It’s bright - two large skylights and a wall of glass.
My bedroom and living room faces south so sun in there, but I tend to spend my day in the back (kitchen/diner).

I've had both. My north facing garden was unusable in the winter (high house, 60ft garden), in shade until March/April time and just wet, cold and miserable unless it was summer. It was hard to get plants to thrive, though some did. In summer though it was lovely, always with part shade - really nice to sit and chill in. When I sold the house, quite a few buyers rejected it due to the garden aspect....but they still came to view it!

My now south facing garden is lovely all aumun, winter, spring, that's the first thing I noticed. On a sunny winter's day, it's bathed in sun even though the sun is low in the sky. Kids spend a lot more time out there playing then they did in the other garden. Up to mid 20s days it's glorious. I love to garden and it's become pretty effortless with all the sun. Heatwave days in the garden are absolutely unbearable. However, I am in the process of strategically planting trees to solve some of this.

On balance I prefer South to North given how long we spend not in summer, and how much nicer the garden feels the other 9 months of the year.

I have a south east facing garden, but all downstairs rooms run the depth of the house so the windows face both south east and north west.

My garden has trees which provide shade and so I have the best of both worlds. The only downside is that the late evening sun is on the front of the house, and so the garden is fully shaded from 7pm onwards.

Hmmm I’m not sure I agree with this. I moved early this year after 7 years in our house with a North facing garden. It was mossy, cold and whilst we had sunny times, we couldn’t be outside in the late afternoon as it would be dark and chilly. Our lounge was sunny (front of house) but typically you don’t want to be boiling watching tv on a summers day. It was workable, but it did mean we didn’t want to spend much time there.

Our new house has a south facing garden and it’s glorious. Laundry dries at all times of the day, flowers are thriving and we can be outside at any time. In the weeks it’s been very hot, we’ve tended to sit under the gazebo but on the normal weeks, it’s lovely having direct sunlight.

The past few months have been unusually warm. We don’t typically have 3 heatwaves in 6 weeks. But also, summer aside, it’s nice to enjoy your garden in spring and autumn when it wasn’t possible in our north facing garden.

I still think South is the way to go and I’d never move to a north facing garden property again.

We've got a north facing garden. We love it as there's always shade (not as much as we'd like to be honest). About 10-20% is always in shade and moves around depending on the time of day. Part of the patio is the other side of our extension, so afternoon/teatime it's shaded (been great the last few weeks as we can comfortably sit out from 3pm). When it's a bit cooler we just move the table about 10-15ft and we're in full sun.

I guess this thread probably shows that all circumstances are different, and it is very much down to the individual positioning as to whether the garden is in shade (eg in our NE facing garden we still have sun all afternoon because there is nothing overshadowing us to the West)