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Tips to use your garden to increase the value of your property
James Allan
Company: Puma Landscaping
Whether you’re a seasoned property investor or someone taking their first steps, whether you’re selling an investment property or looking to rent one out, you want to make the maximum return on your investment. We all know that there are some tried and tested ways such as:
- Adding a loft conversion
- Converting or extending a basement
- Turning a garage into a living space
However, one area that many people overlook is the property's gardens. Here at Puma Landscaping, we work with a wide range of property investors I’ve seen what works and what doesn't when trying to add value to your property investment with its gardens. Here’s some of my tips for what you can do to maximise your profit whether selling or renting out your investment property.
Back garden
When looking how the outside areas of a property can add value, most people tend to concentrate on the back garden. It’s easy to see why. Our back gardens are usually the places we relax in, we entertain in and our children play in and there are some straightforward ways that you can add value to your investment whether it’s for sale or rental. The most important thing to do though is to design your garden for your target market
When you are putting an investment property up for sale or rent, the key to maximising your sale price or rental income is effectively marketing your property. The key to marketing is understanding what your target market wants or needs and providing that to them. Therefore, what you do with your back garden is extremely important, as it’s an integral part of your property. Let me give you two examples.
Student lets (or other shorter-term lets)
If you’ve invested in a student property, there are two factors to consider:
Maintenance
Firstly, as these are short-term lets that will have a relatively high turnover of tenants, it’s unrealistic to think that they are going to take care of a beautifully landscaped garden bursting with beautiful plants and flowers. Therefore, you want something as low maintenance as possible and you may even want to consider fully concreting the area.
Functionality
Secondly, you need to consider functionality. Whilst students may not want to be looking after a busy garden, they will appreciate an outside space that lets them enjoy the outdoors with their housemates. Therefore, your back garden, whilst being low maintenance needs to be neat, tidy and functional for their needs. You may want to consider built-in outside seating areas and a brick barbecue, allowing your students to enjoy the sunshine in the warmer months. In a competitive student lets market, attention to detail like this can bump up your rental income as well as attracting better student tenants.
Sale properties and long-term lets
If you’re selling an investment property or looking to rent it out on a longer term basis, then you can do more with the garden to increase the sale price or rental return. Once again it’s about understanding your target market and what they will be looking for in a garden. What I do recommend however is that refurbishments and renovations should be kept to a moderate level because potential buyers/renters will have their own vision as to how they want the garden to look. Some ideas include:
The lawn: keep it or not?
If your property has a large lawn, this can be a plus point or a negative depending on the type of property you have. If you’ve got a spacious three or four bedroomed house for example, families with children will be one of your core target markets. Therefore, a large lawn will almost certainly be seen as a big plus point, an area where the kids can run free and where slides, swings and other play equipment can be used.
However, if you’ve got a smaller property and one that is in an area that will attract young professionals without children, a large lawn may not be such a bonus. You may want to consider keeping some of the lawn, but converting the rest to a nice patio or decked area for entertaining. This will be much more attractive to your target market and should add value to both sale and rental prices.
Add a shed
Granted, it’s not the most exciting way to add value to your property but it’s one of the most straightforward and one that will be welcomed by both purchasers and renters. Whatever the size of a property people live in, storage is one of those things that they never seem to have enough of. For that reason, good storage is a massive plus point for potential buyers and renters, especially if you’re competing against other houses of a similar style and layout. A shed is simple, cost effective solution that is suitable for a wide range of storage.
Outdoor lighting
Outdoor lighting is often overlooked when offering a property for sale or for rent. Perhaps the most obvious benefit is that when it is fitted well, it can significantly enhance the look of your home, making it’s architectural features stand out and make the property look appealing. But it can also have a significant effect on how your garden looks too, especially in the winter months where you may have lots of evening viewings.
Landscape lighting can showcase how the back garden can be used to potential renters or purchasers. With a well-lit back garden, it shows them that those afternoon barbecues don’t have to end when the sun goes down, but can carry on into the evening.
There’s also the security aspect to consider. We all want to feel safe in our homes so a well-lit back garden makes your home much less inviting to potential intruders, since there are fewer shadows or dark spots to provide cover.
The front garden
Most people tend to concentrate on back gardens when trying to add value to their property, but when utilised well, front gardens can potentially add a significant amount to the purchase and rental value of your property.
First impressions count
Both potential purchasers and renters will welcome a neat, tidy and well presented front garden with slow growing plants that don’t require too much maintenance. A good tip is to invest in some screening or maybe a trellis or fence to conceal ugly wheelie bins. It’s attention to detail like this that can really make a difference.
Adding a driveway
If your property is in or near an inner city area where parking is difficult, you may want to think about adding a driveway. The more into an inner urban area that you live, the more valuable parking space is. In big cities such as London, Birmingham, Glasgow or Manchester, not having to pay for a parking permit can save someone thousands of pounds per year. This makes houses with a parking space highly sought after and can really push sales and rental prices up. Phil Spencer, property expert and presenter of Channel 4’s Location, Location, Location estimates that adding a parking space could add up to £50,000 to a property price.
However, adding a driveway to your garden isn’t as straightforward as it once was. You may need planning permission, so it’s essential you talk to your local council at the outset as the exact requirements may vary slightly across the country. The key issue is usually drainage. If you use a porous material, such as gravel, permeable asphalt or permeable block paving, you won't usually need planning permission. Neither will you need planning permission if the off-street parking is constructed to allow rainwater to drain to a border or lawn. However, if you use an impermeable material that won’t allow water to drain to a more permeable area, and the area is more than five square metres, planning permission may be required.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that if you already have paving that this will be suitable to park on. Unless it was designed to be parked on, it almost certainly won’t be suitable as it won’t have enough hardcore underneath to take the weight of a car.
What you will need planning permission for is the dropped kerb that will allow a car to get on and off your new parking space easily. The council will have to do the work and will often charge a premium for it. However, this should be easily recouped in either increased rental income or an increased sale price thanks to the new parking space.
Before you go, here are some other ways that you can improve your garden to maximise your ROI:
- Ensure all fencing and gates are cosmetically pleasing and secure
- Add a water feature or pond (avoid the latter if your target market is families though)
- Consider using artificial grass
Check out our website HERE for more great ideas and customer testimonials.
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The Property Voice Insight from Richard Brown
In any property investment, be it to retain or sell on, we need to look at the garden as part of the overall picture. How we deal with the garden will depend on who it is intended for and what our objectives are.
For example, I have recently taken on a property that I plan to refurbish and sell on. Both the front and back garden are, much like the rest of the property, not in great shape. The initial 'kerb-appeal' is blighted by a damaged lawn due to cars being parked on it and a rather odd steep set of steps to clamber into the property. The back garden is hardly family-friendly in what is essentially a family house, being a 3-bed semi. Then, the fencing is in a terrible state and there is rubbish and debris scattered around all over the place. So, the garden is going to form a significant area of focus on this one...because I want it to appeal to homeowner buyers with a family.
So, making access easier and improving that first impression is on my list for the front garden. Then, replacing the damage or rotten fence panels and adding a nice decked area to link between the house and the rest of the garden offers another usable space. Sorting out the lawns front and back, as well as a general tidy up. These things won't cost a fortune but they will help to make the property stand-out with a couple of simple additions and more importantly, will become a desirable and usable space for my target market too.
If this was a rental project, to be honest, many of these changes I would undertake as well, possibly with the exception of the decked area. It might be an attractive feature, but it would probably not command as much as a rent premium as it would a sales premium. So, that would be the main difference.
I am also scoping out a bungalow with more of a high-end finish. Here, I am looking at having bi-fold doors that open into the garden, so to link the hub of the house with the garden and create more of a flow. This also helps to add to a sense of lifestyle, instead of the garden simply being a patch of lawn stuck at the back.
Then, in my HMOs, it a case of providing a practical and usable space...and then making sure I retain the responsibility to maintain it as well. A bit of lawn, a patio and some nice garden furniture, all help to enhance the appeal to the tenants, who let's face it will all probably point at one another if asked to tidy the place up and keep it in tip-top shape.
Always budget according to the requirement and just take a look at the gardens in other properties, be they rental or sale, are offering. Often, with just a few small additions and attention to detail, you can create a wow-factor in the listing without the ouch-factor in the pocket!